Taking a life course approach to the study of reproductive health involves the investigation of factors across life and, also across generations, that influence the timing of menarche, fertility, pregnancy outcomes, gynaecological disorders, and age at menopause. It also recognises the important influence of reproductive health on chronic disease risk in later life. Published literature supports the use of an integrated life course approach to study reproductive health, which examines the whole life course, considers the continuity of reproductive health and the interrelationship between the different markers of this. This is in contrast to more traditional approaches that tend to focus only on contemporary risk factors and which consider each marker of reproductive health separately. For instance, we found evidence linking early life factors such as growth, socioeconomic conditions, and parental divorce with ages at menarche and menopause, although the nature of the relationship differs. We discuss the different theoretical models that are used within life course epidemiology and which postulate pathways linking exposures across the life course to health outcomes, using examples of relevance to the study of reproductive health. These highlight the importance of examining timing of exposures, such as during critical periods in early life, and the temporal order of exposures. How life course frameworks of reproductive health can be developed to help identify hypotheses to be tested is also demonstrated. This approach has implications for the development of effective health policy that moves beyond identifying not only the type of intervention but also the most appropriate time across life to intervene.

中文翻译：

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生殖健康的生命历程方法：理论和方法

以生命历程方法研究生殖健康涉及对影响初潮时间、生育能力、妊娠结果、妇科疾病和更年期年龄的跨生命因素以及跨代因素的调查。它还认识到生殖健康对晚年慢性病风险的重要影响。已发表的文献支持使用综合生命过程方法来研究生殖健康，该方法检查整个生命过程，考虑生殖健康的连续性及其不同标记之间的相互关系。这与更传统的方法形成对比，这些方法往往只关注当代风险因素，并分别考虑生殖健康的每个标志。例如，我们发现了一些证据，将成长、社会经济条件和父母离婚等早期生活因素与月经初潮和更年期的年龄联系起来，尽管这种关系的性质不同。我们讨论了生命历程流行病学中使用的不同理论模型，这些模型假设将生命历程中的暴露与健康结果联系起来的途径，使用与生殖健康研究相关的例子。这些强调了检查暴露时间的重要性，例如在生命早期的关键时期，以及暴露的时间顺序。还展示了如何开发生殖健康的生命历程框架以帮助确定待检验的假设。