What if healthcare didn’t just treat illness—but helped us thrive in good health from birth to old age?
This is the concept behind a new framework launched today by WHO which aims to help countries adopt a life course approach to health. The framework, developed through extensive global consultation with diverse health experts and policymakers, offers a roadmap for rethinking how health systems support people at all life stages.
“Rather than focusing solely on disease and sickness, the life course approach emphasizes building people’s capacity to live well—physically, mentally, and socially—throughout their lives,” said Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at WHO. “It’s not only about adding years to life but also life to years – ensuring people can live well at all ages, and pass on the best possible future to their children.”
What is a life course approach to health?
The life course approach recognizes that health is shaped by a mix of biological, social, environmental, and behavioral factors—and that these influences persist throughout our lives. Experiences in early life can affect health decades later, even for future generations.
For instance, a child born into a nurturing environment with access to early learning and good nutrition is more likely to succeed in school, find stable employment, and enjoy better health later in life. Similarly, a middle-aged adult who receives support to manage stress and stay physically active may delay the onset of chronic conditions and maintain independence well into older age.
A life course approach connects the dots between life stages—childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and older age—and promotes policies and services that support people across their entire lifespan. Interventions to promote health are beneficial at all ages, but the framework recognizes the need for particular attention around critical moments of transition or risk like pregnancy, infancy and adolescence, when major developments occur.
Why does it matter?
By addressing health disparities early, countries can reduce inequalities that might otherwise persist and compound over time. For example, ensuring that all children receive adequate nutrition in the first five years of life can prevent stunting and cognitive delays that affect school performance and future earnings.
Likewise, investing in adolescent mental health—through school-based counselling or peer support groups—can reduce the risk of depression, substance abuse, and suicide later in life.
Early actions can also be impactful in later life stages. For example, multicomponent interventions, such as exercise, resistance training, nutrition, and cognitive training, can build resilience and delay health declines for middle-aged and older adults. The life course approach also encourages a shift away from fragmented, disease-specific care—where interventions often happen after problems have already developed—toward integrated, person-centred services that respond to people’s real needs.
What does it look like in practice?
In early childhood, nurturing care, early learning, and good nutrition help children build strong cognitive and emotional foundations. Adolescents benefit from mental health support, sexual health education, and school-based services. For adults, workplace wellness programmes, reproductive health services, and chronic disease prevention help maintain well-being. And in older age, integrated care models—like WHO’s Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) programme—support independence, mobility, and social connection.
The approach also values intergenerational relationships, such as older adults mentoring youth, and encourages collaboration across sectors like health, education, housing, and social services.
Six principles for action
The Framework identifies six principles to guide a life course approach for governments and policy makers.
- Focus on the whole person
Health systems should see people as more than their diseases. Care should be person-centred, addressing physical, mental, and social needs across all life stages.
- Promote health equity
Not everyone starts life with the same opportunities. This principle calls for targeted efforts to reduce unfair and avoidable health disparities—whether based on age, gender, income, or geography.
- Act early and often
Intervening during critical life transitions—like early childhood, adolescence, or midlife—can have lasting benefits. But action is needed at every stage, not just early in life.
- Use appropriate, evidence-based action
Policies and services should be grounded in the best available science and tailored to local realities. This includes integrating insights from medicine, public health, and the social sciences.
- Work across sectors and generations
Health is shaped by education, housing, employment, and the environment. The framework calls for multisectoral collaboration and intergenerational solidarity to improve outcomes for all.
- Ensure continuity across life stages
Services should be designed to support people through life’s transitions—from school to work, from parenthood to retirement—ensuring no one falls through the cracks.
What are the next steps?
The WHO is calling on governments, health systems, and development partners to invest in data systems that track health across life stages; to train health workers in person-centred care; build strong partnerships across sectors, and develop investment cases that show the long-term value of sustained and preventive actions for health.
Tools like WHO’s Universal Health Coverage Compendium and Service planning, delivery and implementation platform are available to help countries design integrated service packages that reflect these principles, as well as the data portal for maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and ageing to support evidence-driven programmes.
As the world faces rising health needs and ageing populations, the life course approach offers a timely and transformative vision for the future of health care. WHO next steps include working with countries and partners – whether within the health sector or collaborating across sectors – to put the framework into action and support health for all, at all ages.
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