Child development and long-term outcomes: A population health perspective and summary of successful interventions
Abstract
Studies of socioeconomic gradients in mortality in wealthy societies reveal that they have been persist, and included most of the principal causes of death, even during the era when these principal causes of death have entirely changed. This observation has led to an interest in the ways in which the diversity of conditions of life, unfolding over the life cycle, can become embedded in human biology and subsequently affect health status and vitality. There is evidence that childhood experiences affect subsequent health status (as well as well-being and competence) in profound and long-lasting ways. Conflicting explanatory models of the impact of childhood experiences have been advanced, whose conflicts are political in nature, in that the reflect divergent beliefs about how human potential expresses itself, and, also, about the nature of the obligations which members of society have to one another. Notwithstanding these conflicts, a body of evidence derived from intervention studies in the post-neonatal, preschool, and school age periods suggest that performance in two basic domains of child development, the cognitive and the social-emotional, can be modified in ways which improve health, well-being, and competence in the long-term.
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Biological embedding stands out as the primary mechanism through which susceptibility mediates the impact of SDOH.
“Biological embedding stands out as the primary mechanism through which susceptibility mediates the impact of SDOH”
From Nurse-led approaches to address social determinants of health and advance health equity: A new framework and its implications (2023) · cites this paper as Hertzman & Wiens, 1996
Through biological embedding, SDOH alter biological processes to create short- and long-term changes to the body's epigenetic, neurodevelopmental, immune, and endocrine systems.
“Through biological embedding, SDOH alter biological processes to create short-and long-term changes to the body's epigenetic, neurodevelopmental, immune, and endocrine systems”
From Nurse-led approaches to address social determinants of health and advance health equity: A new framework and its implications (2023) · cites this paper as Hertzman & Wiens, 1996
Early-life stressors predict a large degree of later-life outcomes.
“early-life stressors predict a large degree of later-life outcomes (Hertzman and Wiens, 1996).”
From Deviations from the expectable environment in early childhood and emerging psychopathology (2015) · cites this paper as Hertzman and Wiens, 1996
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- Authors
- Hertzman, C., & Wiens, M.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- ORCID
- Wiens, M.
- Venue
- Social Science & Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1996-10
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1083-1095
- ISSN
- 0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2086889504
- Cited by
- 331
- References
- 77
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 3.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Child and Adolescent Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
- Keywords
- child development, childhood experiences, long-term health effects, social determinants of health, early intervention, cognitive development, social-emotional development, well-being, life course, population health
- MeSH terms
- Child, Child Development, Child, Preschool, Health Promotion, Health Status, Humans, Infant, Social Medicine, Socioeconomic Factors, Models, Educational, Early Intervention, Educational
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