Emergent Epidemic of
Non-communicable Diseases
A Life Course Approach to Non-communicable Diseases: Timing, Trajectories, and New Directions
Professor Rebecca Hardy
Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University
Biography
Professor Rebecca Hardy is Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University, the U.K. – a post which she took up in April this year. She was previously at University College London (UCL), where she remains an Honorary Professor. At UCL, Professor Hardy worked at the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing (from 1995-2019), leading a research programme investigating functional trajectories and cardiovascular ageing, based on the analysis of data from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD) and other longitudinal population studies. She was a senior member of the team within the unit which managed the NSHD, including designing and organising data collections. She then moved to the UCL Social Research Institute and was, for 3 years, Director of CLOSER, a research infrastructure aiming to maximise the use, value, and impact of longitudinal population studies. She is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health by distinction. Professor Hardy uses a life course approach in epidemiology to study health and ageing, with the aim of identifying potential points of intervention across life to maximise the chances of living a healthier, independent life for longer. She has co-authored over 350 peer-reviewed papers and co-edited two books, published by Oxford University Press, on a life course approach, one on women’s health and the other on healthy ageing. Current areas of research interest include: the development and consequences of overweight and obesity across life; functional trajectories of cardiovascular and respiratory ageing; life course social inequalities in health and ageing; and women’s health and menopause.
Abstract
Life course epidemiology has been defined as the study of long-term biological, behavioural, and psychosocial processes that link physical or social exposures acting during gestation, childhood, adolescence, and earlier or adult life or across generations to adult health and disease risk. Life course epidemiology represented a new conceptual model of epidemiological thinking when it emerged in the 1990s. Since then, the extent of life course research has grown substantially, with theories and concepts evolving as more data and new methodological approaches have become available. One key development has been the idea of the study of trajectories of body function and structure across life which enable a greater understanding of ageing and the development of age-related non-communicable diseases, and identification of points in the life course where early prevention may be possible. Life course trajectories highlight the importance of development through childhood and adolescence as well as age-related decline to ageing and health in later life. In this talk, Professor Hardy will demonstrate the relevance of such trajectories, providing examples from research on cardiometabolic and respiratory health. She will highlight the importance of studying variation in trajectories by time and place, and the insights cross-study comparisons can provide. Finally, she will discuss current and future challenges, including the collection of high quality data and repeated measures of function across the whole of the life course, and the methodological approaches which can strengthen causal claims and are leading to greater understanding of mechanisms acting across life.