Covid-19 and its influence on life content

APPLYING A LIFE COURSE PERSPECTIVE TO UNDERSTAND THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19

What are the big questions for the future?

By now, it is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has had and will continue to have wide ranging effects on society. Researchers in all fields have been working to study and understand its implications, but this is only the beginning. In an article by Richard A. Settersten Jr. (Oregon State University), Laura Bernardi (University of Lausanne), Juho Härkönen (European University Institute and Stockholm University) and 15 other colleagues, they explain how a life course perspective can make an important contribution to understanding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals, families and populations.

In this early phase, many questions are being raised that will have to be explored and answered in the years to come. It will be especially important to identify and track long-term effects and to focus both on the effects of being infected by the virus as well as of being affected by the economic and social consequences of the pandemic.

Health

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  How do accumulated biological, psychological and social exposures affect health during the COVID-19 pandemic?
  

Life course epidemiology emphasizes the potentially long-lasting influence of prior exposures to disease and social adversity. For example, poor nutrition in early life is a risk factor for metabolic syndrome (a combination of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity), which is a risk factor for severe COVID-19. An important task for research is to identify how these exposures affect the risk of having a severe form of COVID-19 as well as affect psychological and physical health reactions due to the societal responses to the pandemic.

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  How will children suffer effects from the pandemic related to health and well-being?
  

There is a need to examine the effects on children from different age groups and compare their development over time to identify physical and mental health effects. As COVID-19 creates instability in a family’s economic well-being and relationships, the developmental and health outcomes of children, youth and young adults are likely to be long-lasting, especially in the most vulnerable families.