Our behaviours, personal circumstances and illnesses hugely affect our life expectancy and health. Influences on our health are particularly important before birth and during early childhood. These influences and risk factors continue to accumulate, and their effects build as we move into adulthood. Preventing exposure to these risk factors and reducing inequalities in how these risk factors are distributed among our population, can have a positive impact on our health.
This chapter focuses on:
- the risk factors, causes and protective factors which influence our health
- the health inequalities which are evident and
- the potential impact COVID-19 has had.
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