A Health Promotion For Older Adults - Essay Example

A Health Promotion for Older Adults Introduction Currently in the United s, “old age” is normally defined as the age of 65years and above. However, the age is a randomly picked number since nothing supernatural is witnessed between the last day of 64th birthday and the next day of 65years. This unique 65 was picked by the government of German in 1880s as the age that workers were entitled to receive pensions. When the Social Security Act was passed in 1930s in America, 65years was accepted by Americans as new standard for beginning of old age. Can we compare the 65 year of the 1930s and those of today? No. The current 65 are better in terms of mental and physical health. Many of the older adults in America are seeing their 70th, 80th and 90th birthday (Markson, 2003, p.11) The American Trend The growing number of Americans is s common founded information. For example in 2010, 40.2 million older adults (65 plus years) represented the American populace. It is approximated that by 2050 there will be more than 88.5 million older adults, twice the number in 2010. This has been treated as strange in America because the older adults have outnumbered the teenagers. Additionally, majority of the middle aged couples have more alive parent compared to their children (three to four parents compared to just two children Markson, 2003, p.10). Relationship of race, ethnicity, and culture on health status, health belief, help-seeking behaviors, health practice (i.e., traditional and non-traditional medicine), and health outcomes The number of American adults of 65 years and above will be more than a twofold close to 71 million by 2030. The quickly escalating number of elderly Americans has far-reaching repercussions for the country’s public health structure and will bring unmatched requirements on the conditions on the healthcare and age related-services. Public health attempts to advance health and serviceable autonomous critical strategies in assisting older people remain healthy. According to studies, poor health does not have to be expected outcomes of aging. Elderly adults who exercise health behaviors, fully utilize clinical preventive services, and continually engage with family and friends are most likely to stay health, live independently and attract less health-related costs. An important factor to sustaining a health older health generation is hindering persistent diseases and related complications. Roughly 80% of the elderly have one persistent condition while 50% have at least two. On the other hand, infectious diseases and injuries have inconsistent prevalence on the older generation. Measures to identify methods to stop or decrease the risk of disease and injuries among the older generation as well as broadly apply successful interventions has to be formulates. Understanding how peoples’ bodies change during aging is an essential way in driving out some of the myths. Biological changes in normal aging The sending of messages in the nervous system or the body’s communication superhighway weakens because to balance issues and slower reflexes. The effectiveness of the heart muscles lessens, and arteries are vulnerable to hardening. Because of this, bodies are not able to respond to emotional and physical stress, and blood pressure might increase. Skin wrinkles, thins and dries; lessen skin resiliency and a raise in ‘liver spots’. All these increase vulnerability to hyperthermia and hypothermia, loss, thinning and grey hair. Nails begin to grow slowly, become thicker and brittle. Cognitive Changes There is moderate change in intellectual ability in remaining health. Cognitive changes have effects on the memory and abstract thinking. Older people take more time to learn new things and short-term memory loss is prevalent. Dementia/ Alzheimer’s disease is a common term characterized by acute memory loss, complications with concepts of space and time, shifts in moods, problems with hearing and speech . There are two most common types of multi-infarct dementia resulting from dementia and strokes. This latter contributes to more 60% of the cognitive function complication in older adults. Social Changes Due to an increase in life expectancy, so does closeness to end of formal employment. For the majority, the new stage is a time to enjoy freedom, discover other options, have more time with family and friends and learn new skills. For some, retirement can affect their sense of individuality and leave them confused, bereft and hopeless. Aging happens to everyone and death may happen anytime and mortality rises with age. Apart from sadness and anger, those who experience loss normally suffer loneliness and are overwhelmed. The older adults who retire suffer financial constrains, especially if they have not been saving. Social security income alone is not enough. This forces them to change lifestyles. Other challenges are worry over medical expenses. This essay seeks to integrate public health program for elder adults to heart disease prevalence. Figure 1 below shows the causes of death among American adults of more than 65years in 2007. From the graph, heart disease comes first at 28.2%. The author of social gerontology (Markson, 2003) notes that relationship of race, ethnicity, and culture on health status, health belief, help-seeking behaviors, and health practice and health outcomes indicate there is health inequality between ethnic groups. Because of these causes, such as racism and genetics continue to be a topic of debate. Studies focusing on blacks and whites show differences in health states within Americans because of different racial populations. A combination of race and income are a great influence of death among the older adults. The vulnerability of several diseases are common for politically, economically and socially deprived older adults in America, thus socioeconomic differences are the genesis of most differences especially higher cases of chronic diseases, deaths and poorer health results. Presently in America social classes or ranked systems don’t just involve social classes but also ascribed traits such as race, gender and ethnicity. Ascribed traits refer to social worth mainly used when distributing wealth, opportunities and power. Such traits are typically as a considerable heterogeneity among the old just like it is with other age groups- wealthy, comfortable, poor and acute poverty Markson,2003, p.56). From this context, we look at Alzheimer’s diseases as a health concern faced by the older adults in America. This is one of the most common types of chronic organic brain disease accounting for than 70% of deaths among the older American adults. Approximate assert the disease will have increased by 2050. Good news is that research demonstrates if the onset of this disease is derailed by 5 years then the number of deaths will definitely decrease. This is an immense difference with an influence in the social programs and policy planning for the future, besides decreased impact of the condition across the state. The general peril of developing the disease in old age depends on life expectancy and disease incidence. The incidence does not seem to be on the increase. On the other its prevalence has escalated since it is most common since the higher population is now the older adults compared to middle aged couple and their children. Additionally, it is more common among women as compared to their counterparts. Because of Alzheimer’s disease, an older adult’s brain progressively atrophies then it shrinks in size and weight. It also losses neuron cell bodies leading to development of abnormal cells. At this stage one losses memory. The thought process become slowly, then impaired judgment and speech disturbance begin. This is the beginning of disorientation results. As the disease persist individuals become vulnerable to delusion, emotional disturbances and deterioration of personal and toilets habits and finally a total memory loss. At this point such individuals become dependent on others since they can do nothing on themselves. Therefore the disease causes social and psychological challenge. First, such people are not in a position to make a decision since their brain cells are already damage (cannot reason). Secondly, they cannot do anything social without the help of a caregiver or family member. In most cases where the social limitation becomes acute if the individual is poor or has poor dependants. This is because they cannot go to social places unaccompanied considering the dangers of getting lost, accidents, communication problems and poor social behaviors like anger and violence. Psychologically, Alzheimer’s disease is linked to a progressive cognitive destruction (Markson,203, 121). Some of the characteristics are depression, anxiety, delusion, hallucinations, apathy, irritability and wander. This is an acute since it affects a person’s quality of life as well as the caregiver/ family. It can be more of a torture when the medical bill becomes expensive. Individuals with the disease become like babies since they don’t have an ability to function. ADL Issues Disappearing/ wandering Problems related to money management and settling bills Poor/ impaired judgment IADL Issues Impulsive behaviors Challenges when coping with new situations Failure to recognize friends and family members Research on longer healther living holds fascination for all beings while we wait for science to present the key knowledge on the same. Diet, exercise and environmental factors will be highlighted in this section as secrets to aging well (Markson,2003, 123) Both science and research highlight on social and behavioral aspects such as diets significantly contribute in establishing the quality and period of life among elderly, while environmental factors have a comparatively small contribution. Healthy choices give four essential advantages- they lengthen life, decrease the possibilities of physical disability, cut down on life expenses and support good psychological health as well as cognitive function. Thus, regular exercising, health diet and remaining cautious to prevent accidents are very supportive measures in optimizing aging well and facilitating independence for people living with this health concern. Calorie which is a trait of the food consumed and exercise clearly improves the human longevity. It appears that sickness and other pathologies are derailed to the end of complete maximum life of human. Therefore, human being have the possibility of remaining health to the last breathe when diet is well taken care of. The kinds of environment that we live in plays an essential role in determining the quality and longevity of life. For instance, pollution of every kind, secondary smoke from cigar and radiation affect the kind of water and food that goes to the body. Ultraviolet rays from the sun destroy not only the skin but mind too. What of environment where one does have access to exercise equipments or just walk/ jog around? All these factors put together contribute to increased chances of Alzheimer’s diseases. Professional/ paraprofessionals knowledgeable in later life development in their pursuit to find a positive relation between Alzheimer’s disease and old age came up with this evidence based practice. The project was funded by the Institute of Mental Health in 2009. The mission was based possible correlations of old age and Alzheimer’s disease (the older the individual the higher the risk of Alzheimer’s disease). In this case is Alzheimer’s disease a result of biological aging Markson,2003, p.126) Location- Across the United States of America Clientele- Women Design -Evidence-Based Guidelines for Alzheimer’s among older women. Application of the guidelines considered biological aging, environmental factors, exercise and diets. Set-up The older women who participated acknowledged that physical appear to be personal and global constrain. When asked what they liked or disliked about their physical activity the older ones voiced things like, ‘I don’t like the exercise program; I want to work out with a purpose and so on. Strangely, the challenges were clear gender differences (Markson,2003, p.127). Half of them said they were very cautious of their meals while the half was not just cautious. Those who were not very cautious gave their reasons as financial constrain and lack of company to motivate eat well. A few of them said that environmental factors led to production of ‘polluted food and water’. A few also said Alzheimer’s disease is mental disease associated with increased care expenses and serious mental events such as stroke and fracture. Because of the disease some of them felt like they stereotyped while other held beliefs about themselves leading to deeper mental problems. Success Measures The guideline was carried out by social gerontologists. The results they got was not what were expecting. They were surprised to learn a few more issues of the older women. Recommendation Gerontologists should broaden their research/ studies. References Aronow WS, Ahn C. Frequency of new coronary events in older persons with peripheral arterial disease and serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol > or=125 mg/dL treated with statins versus no lipid-lowering drug. Am J Cardiol. 2002;90:789–791. CDC, NCCDPHP. Healthy Aging: Preventing Disease and Improving Quality of Life Among OlderAmericans, 2003. Available at: www.subnet.nga.org/ci/assets/healthyaging.pdf. Accessed March 1. 2006. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.). (2001). Healthy aging: Preventing disease and improving quality of life among older Americans 2001. Atlanta, GA: Dept. of Health and Human Services, Centers for Diseae Control and Prevention. Markson, E. W. (2003). Social gerontology today: An introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. Huber, L. (2008).  Professor’s Notes, M1U3 Normal Cognitive Changes with Age Retrieved August 16, 2014, from http://www.indiana.edu/~multidis/module1/unit1_MD1/index.html In Shephard, R. J. (2014). The year book of sports medicine 2013. Judge JO, et al. Balance Improvements in Older Women: Effects of Exercise Training. Physical Miller, C. A. (2009). Nursing for wellness in older adults. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Nathan, P. E., Enns, C. Z., & Williams, E. N. (2013). The Oxford handbook of feminist multicultural counseling psychology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC. Chronic disease notes and reports: special focus. Healthy Aging 1999; 12:3. Smith, T. E-Pal Assignment #2, personal communication, March 1, “year” Read More