Late Adulthood (65 and over)

• Ageism

  Prejudice or discrimination against a person (most commonly an older person) based on age.
• Primary Aging

  • Gradual, inevitable process of bodily deterioration throughout the life span. 
  • A nature process governed by biology.
• Secondary Aging

  • Aging processes that result from disease and bodily abuse and disuse and are often preventable.
  • The result of nurture, the environmental insults that accrue over the course of a lifetime.
• Young old

  Ages 65 to 74

  Usually active, vital, and vigorous.
• Old old

  Ages 75 to 84.
• Oldest old

  • Age 85 and above.
  • More likely to be frail and infirm and to have difficulty managing activities of daily living (ADLs).
  • Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
  • Essential activities that support survival, such as eating, dressing, bathing, and getting around the house.
• Functional Age

  Measure of a person’s ability to function effectively in his or her physical and social environment in comparison with others of the same chronological age.
• Gerontology

  Study of the aged and the process of aging.
• Geriatrics

  Branch of medicine concerned with processes of aging and medical conditions associated with old age.
• Life Expectancy

  Age to which a person in a particular cohort is statistically likely to live on the basis of average longevity of a population.
• Longevity

  Length of an individual’s life.
• Life Span

  The longest period that members of a species can live.

  Jeanne Clement

  • a French woman who died at 122 years of age.
• Women live longer and have lower mortality rates at all ages than men.
• Globally, healthy life expectancy (HLE) is 62 years for men and 64.8 years for women.
• Senescence

  • Period of the life span marked by declines in physical functioning usually associated with aging.
  • Begins at different ages for different people.
• Epigenesis

  Involves genes being turned on and off by molecular “tags,” or instructions.
• Hayflick Limit: Leonard Hayflick

  Human cells will divide in the laboratory no more than 50 times.

  Cells can divide only a fixed number of times—eventually, they run out of telomeres.
• Endocrine Theory

  The biological clock acts through genes that control hormonal changes.

  • Declines in hormonal activity.

  Loss of muscle strength, accumulation of fat, and atrophy of organs.
• Immunological Theory

  Certain genes may cause problems in the immune system.

  • May lead to an increased susceptibility to diseases, infections, and cancer.
• Evolutionary Theory of Aging

  Reproductive fitness is the primary aim of natural selection.
• VARIABLE-RATE THEORIES (ERROR THEORIES)

  Biological aging as a result of processes that involve damage to biological systems and that vary from person to person.
• Wear-And-Tear Theory

  Body ages as a result of accumulated damage to the system at the molecular level.
• Free-Radical Theory

  Aging results from the formation of free radicals.

  Free Radicals

  • Unstable, highly reactive atoms or molecules, formed during metabolism, that can cause internal bodily damage.
• Mitochondrial Theory of Aging

  Mitochondria

  • Tiny organisms that generate chemical energy for cells and tissues.
  • Help cells survive under stress and powering the body.

  When mitochondria generate energy, they also create free radicals as by-products.
• Rate-of-Living Theory

  There is a balance between metabolism, or energy use, and life span.

  • The faster a body’s metabolism, the shorter its life span.
• Survival Cure

  A curve on a graph showing the percentage of people or animals alive at various ages.
• Dietary Restriction /Caloric Reduction

  Crucial determinant of aging.
• 1. Declines in the brain’s ability to process information rapidly, in executive functioning, and in episodic memory.
  2. Increases in prefrontal activity (associated with effortful, controlled tasks).
  3. Late adulthood, the brain gradually diminishes in volume and weight (particularly in the frontal and temporal regions).
  4. Decrease in the number, or density, of dopamine neurotransmitters due to losses of synapses.
  5. The myelin sheathing that enables neuronal impulses to travel rapidly between brain regions begins to thin.
  6. Older brains can grow new nerve cells from stem cells.
• Women are about a third more likely to have a visual impairment than men.
• Cataracts

  • Cloudy or opaque areas in the lens of the eye, which cause blurred vision.
• Age-Related Macular Degeneration

  • The leading cause of visual impairment in older adults.
  • Condition in which the center of the retina gradually loses its ability to discern fine details.
• Macula

  • A small spot in the center of the retina that helps us keep objects directly in our line of sight in sharp focus.
• Glaucoma

  • The leading cause of blindness.
  •  Irreversible damage to the optic nerve caused by increased pressure in the eye.
• Hearing Loss

  • A permanent hearing loss in the better ear of more than 40 decibels.
• Men are approximately twice as likely to experience a hearing impairment.
• Resistance Training

  Shown that it is possible to increase muscle strength in elderly.

  Help active older adults improve balance and mobility.
• Dementia

  Fourth leading cause of death in 70 years and older.
• Diabetes

  Sixth leading cause of death.
• Hypertension

  • Affect blood flow to the brain.
  • A risk factor for stroke.
  • Declines in attention, learning, memory, executive functions, psychomotor abilities, and visual, perceptual, and spatial skills.
• Most Common Chronic Conditions

  Arthritis, heart disease, and cancer.