Life course approach to health: a paradigm shift to build global health resilience for person-centred healthcare in a turbulent world?

Intersecting crises, such as complex health threats, deep-rooted inequities, and intergenerational vulnerabilities, expose the critical limitations of fragmented, disease-specific global health programmes. While the life course approach to health (LCAH) is theoretically recognised, it is inadequately implemented in global health governance and financing. In this viewpoint, we aim to reposition LCAH as an operational blueprint for the future global health agenda. Based on a 'problem-principles-pathway' logic model, we articulate why and how LCAH can address key challenges of today's global health context. The LCAH is reframed around three actionable shifts: from vertical programmes to holistic integration via person-centred, primary care-based systems; from opportunity-equality to temporal equity, addressing cumulative disadvantage across the lifespan; and from short-term reactivity to proactive resilience, built through sustained investment in 'health capital' at critical life stages. We call for coordinated action between policymakers, donors, global health actors, and community health workers to operationalise this framework. While barriers like short-term political and financial cycles still need be overcome, the LCAH offers a vital paradigm shift for building societal resilience and achieving equitable health trajectories in an uncertain world.