Week 1 - What is Healthy Aging

Question 1

what % is the candian senior population supposed to increase by over the next 20 years? and why?

Answer 1

• 68%
• babyboom population, longer life expectancy because of new medications

Question 2

what does this increasing elderly population affect?

Answer 2

• healthcare system
• labour force
• pension plans
• economy
• etc.

Question 3

what provinces/territories have the highest and lowest % of elderly people and why?

Answer 3

highest: newfoundland and labrador
lowest: nunavut
reasons:
- trends in fertility (either 65+ yrs ago people had lots of kids so theres more older people or now theres more younger people and so that drives the ratio)
- migration (from province to province for different reasons like ability to work, prices, etc.)
- life expectancy (different between provinces/territories - ex: Nunavut doesnt have great access to health care so their life expectancy is lower)

Question 4

wealthier countries have ____ life expectancy

Answer 4

higher

Question 5

life span predictions (4)

Answer 5

• decreases in infant mortality rates
• advances in public health
• adding “life to years” instead of “years to life”
• plateau of life expectancy

Question 6

why is there a plateau in life expectancy?

Answer 6

because even though we are living longer, that means people are developing more chronic diseases as they age

Question 7

who tends to want to live longer?

Answer 7

• men more than women
• ppl 65 yrs+

Question 8

people are living ___ but not _____

Answer 8

longer, healthier

Question 9

men tend to want to live to

Answer 9

76-100yrs

Question 10

women tend to want to live to

Answer 10

51-75yrs

Question 11

what is wanting to live longer associated wiht?

Answer 11

• positive psychological wellbeing
• increased happiness, life satisfaction, purpose of life (think they need more time to find purpose in life)
• decreased risk of all-cause mortality (mediated by lifestyle behaviours)
• decreased mortality from cancer (because they are willing to fight harder to survive) or suicide

Question 12

What are the types of aging? (6)

Answer 12

• chronological
• biological
• psychological
• functional
• social psychological/subjective
• social (social roles)

Question 13

chronological age

Answer 13

number of years person have lived

Question 14

biological age

Answer 14

individual development based on biomedical markers that are determined by mollecular or cellular events (increase with disease, etc.)

Question 15

psychological age

Answer 15

(how old they act)
ones own experiences using nonphysical features such as experiences, emotional, etc.
ex: a grown man who acts like a kid or a little kid who acts like an adult
- think of like if a kids parents left and they had to take care of their siblings then their psychological age will be much older because of their experiences

Question 16

functional age

Answer 16

• combination of chronological, biological and psychological age
• considered to be a wholistic picture of a persons age, best measure of age however its hard to determine

Question 17

social psychological/subjective age

Answer 17

(how old they feel)
the personal subjective age of a person based on how old they feel how old a person thinks they are
- people who feel younger than htey are tend to exercise more (good) but also might refuse help or to go to a home even if they need to becuase they feel young (bad)
- this usually happens when either cognitive or physical health is better than the other

Question 18

social (social roles) age

Answer 18

social roles that an individual has placed on them by society
ex: university student = 17-22yrs

Question 19

How many stages are there in functional aging? and what do they intale?

Answer 19

4
1: childhood
2: working and parenting
3: “young old” age between 65-84 yrs
4: above 85 yrs

Question 20

do all stages have specific ages? why or why not?

Answer 20

stage 1 and 2 do not, because everyoe’s life and experiences are different (ex: a kid whos parents leave have to take care of their siblings, get a job at young age so moves to stage 2 very early on in life)
some people skip certain stages in life or don’t make it to all stages

Question 21

what is the defniton of healhty aging according to WHO?

Answer 21

“continuous process of optimizing opportunities to maintain and improve physical and mental health, independence, and quality of liufe throughout the life course”

Question 22

what does healhty aging include? (5)

Answer 22

• meet their basic needs
• learn, grow and make decisions
• be mobile
• build and maintain relationships
• contribute to society

Question 23

what are ways to ensure healhty aging/slow down aging? (

Answer 23

• exercise
• nutrition
• do things you love/are passionate about
• don’t take things too seriously
• relax
• have a positive outlook on life and aging

Question 24

Biopsychosocial model of aging

Answer 24

Just study picture in slides

Question 25

subjective well-being

Answer 25

Just study picture in slides

Question 26

Successful aging history: Fries (1980)

Answer 26

compression of morbidity:
- the burden of aging is much more prevelent later in life and so you won’t need to live with it for as long and so you have a better quality of life
(burden of lifetime illness is compressed to old age)

Question 27

Successful aging history: Rowe and Kahn (1987)

Answer 27

human aging is usual and can be successful
3 points to successful aging:
- avoiding disease and disability
- high cognitive and physical function
- engagment in life

Question 28

Successful aging history: McArthur Foundation study on successful aging (1984-1993)

Answer 28

interdisciplinary cooperation is most important for hralhty aging

Question 29

Successful aging history: Strawbridge et al. (2002)

Answer 29

need to include the effect of chronic conditions and functional difficulties with successful aging - higher rates of successful aging

Question 30

Successful aging history: Reichstadt et al. (2010)

Answer 30

qualitative interviews on successful aging in older adult perspectives

Question 31

Why do we age? (2 broad categories of aging theory)

Answer 31

1. stochasstic theorises
2. programmed theories (nonstochastic)

Question 32

stochasstic theorises

Answer 32

• most prevalent theory is Free Radical theory (occurs over time and randomly)
• metabolic reactions occuring continuously in the body produce unstable molecules caled free radicals
• free radicals cause cell damage which lead to aging (random change over time in your body causes aging)
• “antioxidant vitamins” bind to free radicals and slow down aging process
• age spots

Question 33

programmed theories (nonstochastic)

Answer 33

• evolved from work by Hayflick and Moorehead (1981)
• biological clock
• predetermined through programmed cell changes/death
• once your cells dying/stop replicating you start aging