Chpt 14 [Late Adulthood] Flashcards
What is the age for late adulthood?
65+
- Young-old: Healthy, more active and financially secure adults who are well integrated into the lives of their families/communities with no dependence. (65-75yr)
- Old-old: Older adults who have physical, mental, or social deficits and require little assistance/little dependence. (75-85yr)
- Oldest-old: Older adults who are dependent on others for almost everything, requiring supportive services (nursing homes/hospital stays.)
(85+yr)
Demographic Shift
A shift in the proportions of the populations of various ages.
Average Life Expectancy
The arithmetic mean calculated by adding up all the ages of death of a group and then dividing by how many people are in that group.
(high-income: 65-81yr)
(low-income: 35-68yr)
Ageism
- Ageism- A prejudice whereby people are categorized and judged purely on the basis of their chronological age.
- Elderspeak- A condescending way of speaking to older adults that resembles baby talk, with simple, short sentences, exaggerated emphasis, repetition, and a slower rate and higher pitch than used in typical speech.
The Facts (sleep&exercise)
Sleep: Sleep becomes lighter and naps more frequent.
Exercise: Exercise can reduce cognitive decline and overall help slow down wear-and-tear/weathering.
3 Theories of Aging
- Organs
- Genes
- Cells
Theories of Aging: Organs
- Wear-and-tear: A view of aging as a process by which the human body wears out because of the passage of time and exposure to environmental stressors.
- Weathering: The gradual accumulation of wear and tear on the body with age.
(Diets): Calorie Restriction and Intermittent Fasting
Theories of Aging: Cells/Cellular Aging
- Cellular Aging: The cumulative effect of stress and toxins, first causing cellular damage and eventually the death of cells.
- Telomeres: The area of the tips of each chromosome that is reduced a tiny amount as time passes. By the end of the life (or through consistent, overloading stress) the telomeres are very short.
Theories of Aging: Genes
Maximum Life Span- The oldest possible age that members of a species can live under the ideal circumstances. For humans, that age is 121-122 years old.
Systems of Aging (4)
- Biosystem Compensation: The Senses (decrease)
- Microsystem Compensation: Sex
- Macrosystem Compensation: Driving (decreases also b/c of biosystem senses)
- Exosystem Compensation: Technology and National Policy
* Universal Design- The creation
of settings and equipment that
can be used by everyone,
whether or not they’re able-
bodied/sensory-acute.
Neurocognitive Disorders (NCD)
- Neurocognitive Disorders (NCD): Any of a number of brain diseases that affect a person’s ability to remember, analyze, plan, or interact with other people.
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Vascular Disease
- Frontotemporal Disorders
- Dementia
Neurocognitive Disorders (NCD): Alzheimer’s Disease
- Alzheimer’s Disease (AD): The most common cause of major NCD, characterized by gradual deterioration of memory and personality and marked by the formation of plagues of beta-amyloid protein and tangles of tau in the brain.
- Plaques: Clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid, found in brain tissue surrounding the neurons.
- Tangles: Twisted masses of threads made of a protein called tau within the neurons of the brain.
Neurocognitive Disorders (NCD): Vascular Disease
Vascular Disease: Characterized by sporadic, progressive, loss of intellectual functioning caused by repeated infarcts, or temporary obstructions of blood vessels, which prevent sufficient blood from reaching the brain. (strokes or head injury)
(formerly called: Vascular or multi-infarct dementia)
Neurocognitive Disorders (NCD): Frontotemporal Disorders
Frontotemporal NCD’s: Deterioration of the amygdala and frontal lobes that may be the cause of 15% of all major neurocognitive disorders. (Also called frontotemporal lobar degeneration)
Neurocognitive Disorders (NCD) that DON’T impare thinking
- Parkinson’s Disease: The most common brain disease that impairs motor control but not thinking. This disease is chronic and progressive that is characterized by muscle tremor and rigidity and sometimes major neurocognitive disorder; this is caused by reduced dopamine production in the brain.
- Lewy Body Disease: Also present in Parkinson’s disease and is a form of major neurocognitive disorder characterized by an increase in Lewy body cells in the brain. Symptoms can include visual hallucinations, momentary loss of attention, falling, and fainting.
- Terminal Decline: For the oldest-old, in the weeks/months before death, all of the body functions may decline. This global failure is unlike problems in only one organ.
