Older Adult Flashcards
Life Expectancy
- 78.8 years
- women = 81 years (XX chromosome and reduced risk taking)
- men = 76 years
a major factor in average life expectancy is what?
decline in infant mortality and advances in medical treatments
what contributes to life expectancy?
health care access, housing, social services, and lifestyles factors. education and finances lead to increased life span
ageism
negative views or myths about aging
myths of aging
- expectations of senility, loneliness, poor health, and lack of interest in sexual activity
- expectations of ending up in nursing home, being poor, and becoming more religious
negative stereotypes of aging
causes greater help seeking behaviors, more feelings of loneliness, worse self-efficacy
senescence
period in which the body begins to age and weaken
3 types of aging definitions
- chronologically: time since birth
- biologically: physical functioning of our body
- psychologically: how old we feel
activities of daily living (ADL)
- after age 75 years, 9% have difficulty carrying out ADL’s
- ADL’s: bathing, eating, getting out of bed, dressing
instrumental ADL’s (IADL’s)
- after age 75, 17% cannot carry out IADL’s
- tasks that require cognitive competence (shopping, food prep, housekeeping, paying bills)
integumentary
- changes due to aging and also do to environmental exposures (sun, smoking –> accelerate how people look)
- dryness, thinning, loss of elasticity (wrinkles), skin tears, bruising (broken blood vessels). fatty layer of skin = lost
musculoskeletal
- joints, ligaments, tendons – less flexible and more prone to injury
- loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia and atrophy)
- loss of bone density in women especially
cardiovascular
- decrease in cardiac output (how much the heart can pump)
- alteration in electrical activity of heart (pacemakers are needed)
- may not be able to increase their heart rate
blood vessels
- get clogged up w/ plaque and fat
- decreased blood flow to organs
- atherosclerosis (thickening or hardening of the arteries caused by a buildup of plaque in the inner lining of an artery)
- hypertension (high blood pressure)
- veins stretch and return flow to heart is less –> edema or clots
respiratory
decreased efficiency of gas exchange
what happens to the prostate?
it enlarges causing more urinary difficulty bc of decrease in testosterone
renal
- filtering of blood is not as efficient
- kidneys more sensitive to drugs and contrast dyes
- kidneys and livers clear out meds, so if you take a lot of meds, it can be problematic
endocrine
may be less sensitive the effects of insulin (at risk to develop diabetes)
gastrointestinal
- decreased taste, difficulty swallowing (choking), loss of teeth
- slow digestive tract (constipation)
- GI tract absorbs less nutrients
neurological
- should not just accept “confusion” as the norm without ruling out other causes or issues
- altered proprioception and kinesthetic senses
incontinence
- involuntary loss of bladder function
- cognitive impairment: confused on when to go
- limitation in mobility: stroke = harder to move/squat
- decrease in bladder capacity
- difficulty emptying (especially for males bc prostate)
- inability to completely empty increases risk of UTI
vision
- presbyopia (decrease in near vision) and loss of elasticity and accommodation abilities continues
- cornea thickens and dulls (cataracts = hazy) – sun exposure increases it
- glaucoma (increased pressure from loss of drainage)
- macular degeneration: breaking down of the retina –> central blurring
hearing
loss of high frequency (presbycusis)
immunity
- decrease in immune response
- immune system is more likely to malfunction and turn against itself (autoimmune and cancer –> your immune cells is letting them reproduce)