Older People - health, illness and society

Question 1

Describe changes in the demographics of ageing.

How many people were there over the age of 65 in 1951, 2012 and projected to be in 2037?

How many more people will there be with three or more long-term conditions in England by 2018 compared to 2008?

Answer 1

The population is ageing as we live longer and there are more of us.

5, 12 and 16 million

Over 50% more

Question 2

Outline the differences between biological and social ageing.

Answer 2

There is a social dimension to human ageing which can’t be reduced to a set of bodily imperatives. ‘Ageing’ is not simply a matter of organic maturation and decay. It differs because ageing takes place in particular and changing social context, so when assessing patients, there shouldn’t be assumptions about what is normal for a certain older age.

Social differences exist between the elderly marked by gender, socio-economic class, income and wealth, and ethnicity.

Question 3

Define ageism and age discrimination.

Answer 3

Ageism is discrimination or unfair treatment based on a person’s age. It can impact on someone’s confidence, job prospects, financial situation and quality of life.
Ageism includes the way that older people are represented in the media (impacts on the public’s attitudes).

Question 4

What is the Equality Act 2010 designed to prevent?

Answer 4

Discrimination - it makes discrimination (on the basis of age, race, sex, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership, or pregnancy/maternity) unlawful.

Question 5

Under the Equality Act, what are older people protected from?

Answer 5

Ageism in employment, training and education, and also in membership of clubs and associations.
You also have increased protection when you are receiving products and services.

Question 6

Give some examples of ageism. (4)

Answer 6

• Losing a job because of your age
• Receiving a lower quality of service in a shop or restaurant
• Being refused a referral from a doctor to a consultant because you are ‘too old’
• Being refused membership to a club or trade association because of your age

Question 7

What additional or different health care needs do older people have? (7)

Answer 7

• Chronic diseases, physical disabilities, mental illness and other co-morbidities
• Isolation
• Maltreatment
• Poor knowledge/awareness about risk factors
• Additional/different food and nutritional requirements
• Financial constraints
• Poor access to healthcare systems

Question 8

What are the political and economic consequences of an ageing population?

Answer 8

Widening ‘dependency ratio’
Increased funding of pensions
Increased long-term care
Rise in demands on the NHS

Question 9

What is meant by dependency ratio?

Answer 9

The projected number of persons aged 65+ expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64.

Question 10

What is a social and psychological consequence of an ageing population?

Answer 10

Increasing social isolation

Question 11

Describe different experiences of later life.

Answer 11

Experience of later life depends on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, country (e.g. climate), falls, nutrition etc… People can have a very different experience!

Question 12

How many % of people over the age of 65 live alone?

Answer 12

36% (nearly 70% of these are women).

Question 13

BME make up 20% of population but just __% of people 60+.

Answer 13

8%

Question 14

How many LGBT people over the age of 55 are there estimated to be Britain?

Answer 14

1 million

Question 15

How many people currently living in the UK will live to see their 100th birthday?

Answer 15

Nearly 1 in 5 people

Question 16

How many people over the age of 70 reported they were still sexually active?

Answer 16

54% of men and 31%

Question 17

For every degree colder than 20C outdoor temperature, mortality rises by…?

Answer 17

1-2%

Question 18

There are 15 times more excess winter deaths each year than…?

Answer 18

Road traffic fatalities

Question 19

Out of the 18.7 million adults admitted to hospital last year, how many were aged 65+?

Answer 19

7.6 million (41%)

Question 20

How many % of people over the age of 65 were found to be malnourished at the time of their admission

Answer 20

32%

Question 21

What is the largest cause of emergency hospital admissions, precipitates the move into residential care and accounts for 40% of ambulance call outs?

Answer 21

Falls

Question 22

How many people aged 65+ died from a fall in 2014?

More women or more men?

Answer 22

3996
This is ~ 10 people every day
Women

Question 23

What is the difference between biographical and historical time?

Answer 23

Biographical time - the processes, experiences and events that occur during an individual persons lifetime.
Historical time - the impact of cohort effects (e.g. living in war-time Britain) upon the individual experience of ageing.

Question 24

Why is a key concern of elderly people maintaining their independence? Why is this idea problematic?

Answer 24

Because the notion of ‘dependency’ in adulthood is socially regarded as undermining self-respect and personal dignity.

This social construct can act as a barrier to ‘active ageing’ and affect people’s own self-conceptions to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It also is associated with the use of a universal retirement age - this can be used to remove older people from the workforce. It also leads to the medicalisation of old age.

Question 25

How is social participation linked to health?

Answer 25

Low levels of social participation lead directly to poorer health outcomes.

Question 26

What is meant by the ‘Third Age’ critique of the Social Dependency Thesis?

Answer 26

The majority of the elderly are seen to have benefited from occupational pensions that enable them to pursue lifestyles that were unthinkable a generation ago.

From this perspective, older people are seen as having the social opportunity to take decisions about who they want to be in retirement and how they will live their lives.

If social identity is seen to derive from patterns of consumption, we can then talk about a ‘third age’ in which the notion of social dependency in old age has become largely redundant. This challenges the view of the centrality of retirement from work for late-life identity.

Question 27

What is Erikson’s stage 7 of development?

Answer 27

Middle adulthood (40-65 years), psycho social crisis = generativity vs stagnation

Question 28

What is Erikson’s stage 8 of development?

Answer 28

Late adulthood (65+ years), psycho social crisis = ego integrity vs despair