Chains-of-Risk Model

The chains-of-risk model is the specific life-course mechanism in which adverse exposures are linked in a sequence over time, so that one exposure raises the probability of the next, and the cumulative or final link bears on disease. Set out in Ben-Shlomo and Kuh's 2002 conceptual paper and defined in the Kuh, Ben-Shlomo, Lynch, Hallqvist, and Power 2003 life-course glossary, it models how early disadvantage can cascade — poor early circumstances leading to limited education, then to hazardous work or health behaviors, and finally to disease. Its signature analytic distinction is between an additive chain, in which each link independently adds to risk, and a trigger chain, in which the early links matter only because they lead to a final exposure that is the true cause. Chains-of-risk modeling thus treats the life course as a causal pathway to be decomposed, not a list of independent risk factors.