Chapter 14: Physical, Cognitive, and Mental Health Issues Flashcards
What are characteristics of Older Adults in the Population?
- Major marketing target,
- wield economic & political power
- Pressure pension systems, healthcare, human services
- Tend more old women
- Proportion of older individuals in minority groups is growing
What is longevity?
The number of years someone can expect to live
- Average life expectancy: age at which half the people of a particular year have died
- Useful life expectancy: free from chronic disease and impairment
- Maximum life expectancy: oldest age to which any person lives
What factors influence longevity?
Good genes, disease, toxins, lifestyle (nutrition), and social class (nutrition/healthcare), ethnicity, gender
What are the physiological changes of neurons in later life?
Changes in the brain affects cognition
- Neurofibrillary tangles: spiral-shaped masses composed of twisted axons interfering with transmission
- Neurotic plaques: damaged and dying neurons around a protein interfering with healthy neurons
- Dendrites: some shrivel and die while others form continuously
- Neurotransmitters: decline with age
What are the physiological changes of the cardiovascular system in later life?
- CV disease risk increases with age
- Older adults tend to have fat deposits in and around the heart affecting
– pumping
– calcification of arteries
– cardiac muscle tissue being replaced with connective tissue
What are the physiological changes of the respiratory system in later life?
maximum amount of air breathed decreases due to stiffening rib cage and destroyed alveoli
What are the physiological changes of the senses in later life?
- Vision: being able to see close up, adjust from near to far, being able to see in the dark, (decreased light entering eye), adjusting to light/dark, acuity, cataracts, glaucoma/pressure), macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy
- Hearing: presbycusis: high pitches cannot be heard well, but all pitches often effected
What are principal health issues for older adults?
- diabetes mellitus: from the pancreas not producing enough insulin
– type 1: earlier (typically)
– type 2: later (typically)
– later onset usually less issues, often diagnosed when other conditions being treated - Cancer: (2nd leading cause of death) increases with old age likely die to cumulative lifestyle effects and potentially decreased tumor suppression.
Keep up sleep and nutrition!
What memory changes occur with age?
- Working memory
- Implicit memory
- Explicit memory
- Semantic memory
- Autobiographical memory -
Declines in memory does not indicate a serious problem, this must be determined through testing
What occurs in working memory with age?
(processes and structures to hold information in mind and use it): generally declines with age, older activate more areas than younger exhausting processing resources
What occurs in implicit memory with age?
(unconscious remembering/routine): changes depends on kind of implicit memory
– sequences tend to change but not spatial
What occurs in explicit memory with age?
(conscious remembering):
- episodic memory (specific to time/event) tend to omit more, have more intrusions, and repeat more. Harder time recognizing and spontaneously using memory strategies.
What occurs in semantic memory with age?
(words/concepts of time/event): tends to not be effected except in dementia.
What occurs in autobiographical memory with age?
(during ones own life): tend to recall fewer details, more positivity
What can be done to remediate memory changes?
Support programs: E-I-E-I-O
Explicit/implicit
External aids: environment: notebook/calendar
Internal aids: (mental processes: imagery)
O: aha moment
