Abstract

This study aims to propose an alternative approach to public health policy for the elderly, reviewing research based on the DOHaD theory and the lifecourse theory. Advanced population aging is accompanied by expanding medical expenditure for them. The major causes of death for the elderly are chronic diseases. According to the DOHaD theory, the cause of diseases is developed in response to the earlier environments, and then, as the lifecourse perspective describes, interacting with the health disadvantages in later life, such as aging, leads to the onset of chronic diseases. What matters is that physiological and functional changes are permanent and occur only in the critical period and that the accumulation of health disadvantages proceeds interactively rather than additively. Some studies have shown that adequate interventions in early childhood can mitigate or even reverse the physical and psychological disadvantages among children presumably influenced by adverse environments in the uterus. Given that, we need to build a system that can provide medical, social, and educational support to mothers including pregnant women and children including fetuses. The target is to raise healthy children and provide them with appropriate support through educational or medical interventions, preventing neglect or abuse. For that, it had better such medical and educational support should be provided at state-of-art standards instead of meeting the minimum requirements, so that no one needs to feel guilty about receiving such services. 

※    If you are interested in this topic, please read the full article below.