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Review
. 2022 Sep 23;14(9):e29500.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.29500. eCollection 2022 Sep.

Early Childhood Development and Social Determinants

Akanksha Likhar  1 , Prerna Baghel  2 , Manoj Patil  2
Affiliations
Review

Early Childhood Development and Social Determinants

Akanksha Likhar et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

In human beings, the development of a child involves biological, emotional, and psychological changes that happen between birth and the conclusion of adolescence. Childhood is divided into three stages: early childhood, middle childhood, and late childhood (preadolescence). Early childhood is typically from infancy to six years of age. The methods for maintaining health and dealing with already-existing sicknesses and the social and economic settings in which children are born, grow up, live, and eventually work are referred to as the social determinants of health. Despite advances in health, child malnutrition remains a problem salutariness (severe) issue with massive human and economic resource implications. There is currently a growing corpus of research on how early development influences a child's success later in life. From conception to two years of age, the first 1,000 days of life are becoming more well-recognized as important for the development of brain circuits that lead to linguistic, cognitive, and socio-emotional abilities, all of which are predictors of later-life labor market outcomes. The social patterning of health, sickness, and illness can be influenced by the social determinants of a child's health. This can also influence a person's overall well-being and functioning throughout their lifetime factors of a child's health, early childhood care, and development from an ecological standpoint, and as planned, a participatory approach in early childhood care and development is implemented. The social determinants of health are the elements that cause positive or negative changes in health or alter disease risks. The social determinants of health, which are different from medical treatment, can be altered by social policy. Social gradients and health equality are ideas that are related to understanding how social factors impact health.

Keywords: determinants of early childhood development; developmental health; early childhood; health determinants; social determinants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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