I am reading a number of articles on life course epidemiology. My understanding is that a cohort may or may not be a life course epidemiological study. I am wondering about the criteria we can use in order to label a cohort study as life course epidemiological study. Any comments are welcome.
I fully agree with Darren Dahly's answer. Life course epidemiology implies more than a cohort study (longitudinal study). The first is a theoretical model whereas the second is a study design. The purpose of life course epidemiology is to build and test theoretical models that postulate pathways linking exposures across the life course to later life health outcomes. For more details you can read the article by Kuh D, BEN-Shlomo Y, Lynch J, Power C intitled Life course epidemiology - in Epidemiol Community Health 2003;57:778-783
In practical ways we combined the two apporaches in the Thai Cohort Study -- now approaching the 8 year point of followup with lots of open access published results. We are studying the overall health-risk transition but began with retrospective questions about the life course (eg were they breast fed at birth, birthweight, childhood environment including water supply, sanitation, mosquito nets) and life course illnesses (25 conditiions). So a life course perspective is embeded in our thinking as we run the cohort to document outcomesas they arise (see pubs).
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