History of Aging
In 1935, a piece of U.S. legislation helped lock in age 65 as the “arbitrary benchmark for acknowledging old age.”
What is the Social Security Act?
Life expectancy in the United States at birth has increased over the last century adding on 30 years of life. This achievement has been lauded as an improvement in population health, although researchers report chronological age and biological age may not be increasing hand in hand. Researchers demonstrate this increase in our years could be more realistically described as an improvement in keeping people in declining health alive.
What is Longevity?
Based on a recent survey by the National Council on the Aging, this is the percentage of this population who would consider using money earmarked for their children’s college education to pay for their parents’ long-term care?
What is: 50% of Adult Children?
If adult children are ill-equipped themselves to provide care and are unable to hire private duty nursing, they may look for a facility with 24 hour nursing and support services.
What is Long Term Care or a Skilled Nursing Facility?
The growing number of adults turning 65 and living longer are increasingly dissatisfied with aging care models and demand has led to a larger array of housing options including the possibilities for individuals to move along a continuum of care as needed without leaving a campus, or building.
What is a Continuing Care Retirement Community, or CCRC?
Chronological aging, although useful for a broad mortality or life expectancy measurement does not address the great health heterogeneity of aging adults. In addition to the number of years, other health markers must be used to better determine an individual's mortality prediction.
What is Biological Aging?
This type of engagement, including regular exercise, is particularly important for midlife and older adults because it delays or mitigates age-related functional declines through maintenance of muscle mass and strength, gait speed, and balance.
What is Physical Activity?
A larger number of baby boomers are involved in direct financial support of their adult children. This in part results from college-aged children, aged 18-24, living at home, but a survey from 2011 found increasingly there is a trend of support for adult children aged 25-34 through direct bill assistance like student loans, transportation costs, insurance coverage, medical bills and even spending money.
What is delayed adulthood?
This generation has delayed their childbearing years due to a number of factors including: Graduate school and careers, getting married later in life, and having 2nd and 3rd marriages.
What are Baby Boomers?
Married couples (male and female) who reported their own perceptions of how well they were aging, found that this gender group of individuals reported having better health benefits from being married.
Who are men?
The growing number of adults turning 65 and living longer are increasingly dissatisfied with aging care models and demand has led to a larger array of housing options including the possibilities for individuals to move along a continuum of care as needed without leaving a campus, or building.
What is a Continuing Care Retirement Community, or CCRC?
Older adults experience aging in widely variable ways impacted by their socioeconomic, environmental and genetic backgrounds.
What is Heterogeneity?
Over the course of time, one aspect of aging that has been analyzed repeatedly is the concept of successful aging. In an interview of the oldest old (those over 90 years old) to get their perception of aging well, the researchers were surprised to find that this aspect of life was significant to them.
What is having a good death?
Women who are midlife, can modify these three health behaviors to help achieve a positive health-related quality of life when aging.
What is maintaining a healthy weight, engaging in physical exercise, and having good sleep hygiene?
What are social connections?
Grandparents raising children of this age group report experiencing particularly high levels of stress.
What is Adolescence?
How we age has been reflected on and documented since the philosopher Cicero’s “On Old Age” essay from 44 BC. These two contrary concepts regarding physical and mental maturity in old age have been consistently recognized by theorists throughout the years.
What is potential growth and decreased abilities?
When considering healthy aging, one also needs to understand the importance physical activity has on the ability to age well. Physical activity (which can include strength training, balance, and aerobic activity) can help reduce this risk to older individuals.
What is risk of falling?
What may be a better approach toward adults who hope to age in place is to create new care models that are person-centered and measure an individual's sense of competence, independence, agency in decisions and opportunities to thrive.
What is Quality of Life?
A metaphor used to describe the growing aging population and the accompanying impact as individuals move into retirement and possible declining health, plus a metaphor Dr. W finds distasteful
What is the Silver Tsunami?