The Journey Of Adulthood, 5/e Helen L. Bee & Barbara R. Bjorklund Chapter 4 Health and Health Habits...

The Journey Of Adulthood, 5/eHelen L. Bee & Barbara R. Bjorklund

Chapter 4 Health and Health Habits

The Journey of Adulthood 5/e by Bee & Bjorklund. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Secondary Aging

• Often-preventable changes that happen to only some people as they age.


Age-related patterns in health and disease

• Mortality • Morbidity: general patterns of illness


• Mortality rate: probability of dying in any one year. [see figure 4.1 and table 4.1 in the text]


Mortality



Morbidity: general patterns of illness


• Younger adults twice as likely as those over 65 to suffer from acute illness.

• Chronic illness (e.g., heart disease) shows age-related increase.

• Disability is determined if illness interferes with daily functioning across:

activities of daily living (ADLs)Instrumental activities of daily living (IADLS)


Morbidity: general patterns of illness (cont’d)


• Many housing alternatives exist with different levels of care:

retirement communitiescongregate living facilitiesassisted- living facilitiesskilled-nursing facilitiescontinuing-care retirement communities


Age-related changes in specific diseases

• Heart Disease • Cancer • Alzheimer’s Disease • Overview of aging and physical disease


Heart Disease


• Coronary Heart Disease (CHD):

•Atherosclerosis: coronary arteries slowly become blocked.

•Not a normal part of aging.

•Table 4.3 in the text indicates risk for CHD.

•The number one killer of women in US.

•Note gender differences in heart attacks.



Cancer

• Cancer is rapidly accelerated, uncontrolled cell division and is caused by a series of mutations, or genetic errors, at the cellular level.

• Second leading cause of death for adults in US.

• Lung cancer is leading cause of cancer death for both men and women.

• Incidence of cancer increases with age.

• See Table 4.3 in the text for some risk factors of cancer.



Alzheimer’s Disease

• Alzheimer’s is a progressive, incurable deterioration of key areas of the brain.

• Truly a disease of old age (90% cases develop after age 65).

• Fourth leading cause of death and major type of dementia.

• New medications slow progress of Alzheimer’s.



Alzheimer’s Disease (cont’d)

• Brain abnormalities caused by the mutation of some genes:

Senile plaques: small, circular deposits of a dense protein betamyloid.Neurofibrillary tangles: webs of degenerating neurons.

• Early onset (10% of cases) linked to 3 genes. Cause of late-onset less clear.

• Alzheimer’s dementia is clearly distinct from normal aging.


•Although the risk of having some disease increases with age, no one of these specific diseases is an inevitable part of aging.

Overview of aging and physical disease



Prevalence of mental disorders seems to be constant across age groups, although different disorders are predominant at different ages.

Age changes in mental health


• Depression is a mood disorder typified by a long-term pervasive sense of sadness and hopelessness. [See Table 4.4 in the text for diagnostic criteria for Major Depression]

• Some difference in type of symptoms older adults report (e.g., more physical symptoms), but no difference in response to treatment.

Depression




• There is a clear increase in suicide with age. (See Figure 4.8 in the text for suicide rates by age.)

• Elderly white males are most likely to commit suicide.

• Predictors of suicide:

• Depression• Living alone• Anxiety and other emotional problems• Medical problems, etc.

Suicide



• Major symptoms are feelings of fear and dread when no obvious danger is present.

• Panic disorders: sudden episodes of intense apprehension, shortness of breath, etc.

• Phobias: fears and avoidance out of proportion to the danger.

• Generalized anxiety disorder: chronic, persistent, and excessive worry.

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder: guilt and anxiety over certain thoughts.

Anxiety Disorders


Physical changes over adulthood

• Agoraphobia: fear of leaving one’s home.

• ~ 20% of older adults suffer from an anxiety disorder.

• Rates of phobias increase with age.

• High rate of comorbidity between anxiety and depression.

• The harm avoidance gene has been linked to both anxiety and depression.

• This gene is thought to determine the effectiveness of serotonin

Anxiety Disorders (cont’d)

Individual differences in health and disease


• Gender Differences• Social Class, Race, and Ethnic Differences• Personality and Health• Personal Health Habits and Risk Behaviors



• Women die at older ages of basically same diseases as men.

• Women have more disability and more non-fatal chronic diseases.

• Women have a higher incidence of most psychological disorders.

• Men have higher rates of alcoholism, substance abuse and suicide.

• The differences in medical disorders (e.g., CHD) are both biological and social.

• More difficult to explain differences in emotional disorders.

Gender Differences



• Chronic conditions and physical limitations show more rapid and extreme changes with age among poor adults.

• A substantial portion of social class differences in health can be accounted for by variations in health habits (e.g., smoking, poor nutrition, etc.).

• Ethnic differences exist in prevalence of various diseases.

• Healthy immigrant effect: those who come to the US from other countries tend to be in better health than those who were born here.

Social Class, Race, and Ethnic Differences



Type A:• achievement-striving• competitive• feel extreme time urgency• easily provoked to hostility.

• People who are type A are at greater risk for CHD.

• Direct and indirect links between type A behavior and the development of CHD.

Optimism: people with a positive outlook on life are less apt to suffer from serious physical illness and less likely to die prematurely.

Personality and Health



• Health habits play a major role in:

• rate of physical changes of aging• degree of good health• how long one will live

• Regardless of childhood experiences, those who follow basic health rules have a good chance of aging successfully.

• Exercise plays a large role in preventing disease and disability. However, majority of adults do not exercise sufficiently to acquire health benefits.

Personal Health Habits and Risk Behaviors

The Journey Of Adulthood, 5/e Helen L. Bee & Barbara R. Bjorklund Chapter 4 Health and Health Habits...

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