Sociology of ageing

Question 1

What is life-course perspective of ageing?

Answer 1

• People may experience ageing differently due to social & structural disadvantages that accumulate over time

Question 2

What do we expect from older people?

Answer 2

• More vulnerable
• Not needing to work or fulfil other duties that adults may have to
• More sedate
• Differs from culture to culture

Question 3

Self perception of ageing?

Answer 3

• People may feel that they have not aged on inside- may experience mismatch between how they feel & how they are perceived
• May not be helped by social ageing, ageism in society & cult of youth

Question 4

Effects of mismatch between someone’s perception of how old they feel & their functional age?

Answer 4

• They might feel trapped
• Feeling of depression/ anxiety
• Be patronised
• Get aggressive
• May be treated incorrectly- assumed as not having capacity r not understood by careers
• Refusal to accept treatment

Question 5

Cognitive changes that may have clinical implications?

Answer 5

• Older adults may need longer to search their memory to retrieve info
• May find it harder to filet out background noise

Question 6

Factors that affect treatment compliance in patients?

Answer 6

• Difficulty swallowing pills
• Remembering taking meds on time
• Side effects
• Complexity of medication regimen
• Polypharmacy
• Lack of understanding why taking meds
• Mental health
• Self neglect

Question 7

Determinants of adherence relevant to older adults?

Answer 7

• Age
• Duration of treatment
• Cognitive function
• Co-morbidities
• Medication being provided & its properties
• Drug interactions
• Care home vs home w/ other people vs home alone- care provide, lack of support of care, self-neglect
• Patients health belief
• Socio-economic status
• Patients friendliness of regimen

Question 8

Social aspects of ageing?

Answer 8

• Physical & mental decline not inevitable in later life
• As people grow older, they maintain their own sense of personal identity
• People experience the self as younger than body
• Dementia & Alzheimer’s disease do not mean loss of self

Question 9

Impact of increased life expectancy ?

Answer 9

means people over 50 will no longer be minority

does not mean increased burden of older people- evidence has shown older people continue to contribute to social life
- but will affect policies about healthcare that favours older people.

social rule that used to be common e.g. childcare for grandchildren, are less common- knock on effect on society- carers
-traditional roles of older people less relevant