The life course approach examines an individual's life history and investigates, for example, how early events influenced future decisions and events such as marriage and divorce, engagement in crime, or disease incidence. The primary factor promoting standardization of the life course was improvement in mortality rates brought about by the management of contagious and infectious diseases such as smallpox.
The life course approach examines an individual's entire lifetime and considers how early events have influenced future decisions, such as marriage, divorce, crime involvement, or disease incidence. The primary factor for standardizing the life course was the reduction in mortality rates due to controlling contagious and infectious diseases like smallpox.