More people are living much longer lives than in years past. People are very surprised to be living much longer lives than they thought they would. Health care has played a large part in patient longevity. There are many normal changes that come along with aging, however, because people are living longer these normal changes can become chronic problems. Common aging problems that can make the older adult a vulnerable population are reviewed in Gerontological Nursing (Tabloski, 2014) and can include nutritional needs, medication management, sleep changes, oral or mouth care, renal problems and musculoskeletal concerns. According to A Profile of Older Americans: 2013 (http://www.hhs.gov), there are a large amount
As a person ages, theirs body cannot perform the way it used to. This will cause many elderly people to loose their job or choose to go into retirement. Both of these options cause a loss in health care as well and a reduced or exterminated income. Here alone lies a reason that the elderly population is challenged. The elderly population also has a tendency to develop a chronic illness that can be life threatening if not treated or controlled properly. This means that need for health care treatments also increases. At least 40% of those over age 65 will have nutrition-related health problems requiring treatment or management (Gigante, 2012). It is important to realize that 10% of people over the age of 65 and will develop Alzheimer’s disease and 50% of those over the age of 85 will develop this disease (Gigante, 2012). More elderly African American men and women use government aid than white men and women. Therefore, this population will be vulnerable because of the lack of funding, proper health care and insurance.
Many people are living longer and sometimes the elderly are unable to take care of themselves and will depend almost 100% on the care of others. The U.S as with many other developed countries must find ways to cope and address this shift in demographics. John Beard, the department head of Ageing and Life Course in World Health Organization stated with the rapid aging of populations, finding the right model for long-term care becomes more and more urgent. Recent records from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that about 12 million men and women who are over the age of 65 will need long term care by the year 2020. Furthermore, a study done by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services stipulates that four out of 10 people who will reach the age of 65 will stay in a nursing home at some point in their lives.
In 2011, the first of the Baby Boomers – the 78 million men and women born between 1946 and 1964 – will begin turning 65 at a rate of more than 8,000 per day. By year's end, the nation's senior population will have increased by almost 3 million, to nearly 49 million. By 2025, then, the total will reach 72 million – more than double the 35 million at the turn of the new century. (Home Instead Senior Care, 2010). Millions of Americans with chronic diseases and disabilities, like Alzheimer's, heart failure, kidney disease, and diabetes, need careful monitoring but do not want enter a nursing home or skilled care facility. I can recall my grandfather would only agree to go to the doctor's office if he was certain he could return
The Living Old program is about the United States of America population of people who are over 85 years old. This video was broken down into a six chapters. The first chapter was called, “Our Aging Society.” This chapter was about how the geriatric population is growing and changing our current society. In addition to the present changes, Doctor Audrey Chun commented on how people in the past died from pneumonia, flus, and other things such as infectious diseases. Whereas, in present time people are dying from chronic diseases such as hypertension, heart failure, strokes, diabetes and other things that require management over the years. This chapter also touched on how the current health care system is not set up to treat chronic diseases.
In order to understand how the aging population impacts health care, why the older population is expanding needs to be established. In the year 2011, the “baby boomer” generation began to have their 65th birthdays. The other side of the older population is that technology is improving dramatically,
One of the most prominent themes occurring in these articles is how much remains to be learned about battling illness. There is not a question that our knowledge of medical treatment has advanced well beyond the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic of 1793. This is illustrated by Williams (1997), who asserts that most of the life-threatening conditions in today’s developed societies target the elderly. This is because medical knowledge has improved so vastly. Countries with easily accessible health care do not risk children and young to middle aged adults dying from conditions that are easily treatable; however, once one gets to the end of their life, conditions such as cancer and cardiovascular challenges are no longer avoidable like the common cold is in youth. Thus, it is the most fortunate societies that are plagued with high rates of elderly illness because the population is living long enough to be considered elderly.
102). “Reaching old age means living with less income” or that’s what it used to mean. In the United States elderly has had a 45% increase in income leading them to not only having less elders be poor but having greater gains than young adults (Macionis, 2014, pg. 104). One of the main reason as to why the elderly population has grown massively over the last few years and will continue to grow is primarily because of the “baby boomers.” With these Baby Boomers getting close to the age cap of becoming an elder the populations’ growth will increase the problem of Ageism.
Americans at the ages of 65 years and older are considered in the “elderly” classification. With advancements of healthcare and life expectancy growing rapidly, it is expected that the average American will grow to live at this age or longer. According to the Population Reference Bureau, the number of Americans at the age of 65 and older is expected to double from roughly 46 million today, to over 98 million by 2060. This means that the elderly’s portion of the total United States population will grow from 15 percent to almost 24 percent. As people obtain older age, they also obtain the health and social problems that accompany it.
Over the next 50 years the expected growth of the older adult population in the United States will have a profound impact on the health care system. The baby boom generation is already having an effect on the heath care system and this is expected to grow as the century progresses. Individuals in this age
The advances in medicine have greatly benefitted the world at large. This can be seen largely in both the mortality and longevity rate which have dramatically increased as a result of medical advances. No other demographics have profited from these medical breakthrough than the senior citizen or the elderly particularly in the United States. The National Center on Elder Abuse which is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services notes by 2050, people of the ages between 65 and older will make up 20 percent of the total population of the United States, which represent the largest growing segment of the population (NCEA, 2010). With the longevity of this population comes also the rising issue of abuse,
America is facing a previously unknown challenge. By the years 2030 the number of people reaching retirement will have doubled, this will account for an increase from 12 percent to almost 20 percent of the United States population. By 2050 the number of Americans who are over the age of 85 and make up the highest amount of chronic illness, poverty, and need for assistance with activities of daily living, will quadruple to 19 million. (CSWE.org)
The impact of the occupation and social class of an individual’s parent on their educational success has long been a focus of sociologists. Success in the educational system in the UK is measured by longevity and qualifications. Sociologists have for many years been concerned with why the attainment gap appears to be so large between working and middle class children. This is as relevant today as ever due to the recent Education Act 2011 where one aim was to ensure higher education was accessible to children of all social backgrounds.
Parental investment includes any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring’s chances of survival, at the cost of the parent’s ability to invest in other offspring (Travier, 1972). Since investing on themselves is as important as investing on their children, parents have to choose between caring for a child and acquiring the resources needed to insure their own productive and reproductive successes (Turner & McAndrew, 2006). This choice can be influenced by the social, cultural and economic factors at household level, and by socio-demographic factors at individual level. These factors may vary from culture to culture and overtime. However, the following variables are the most frequently cited determinants of parental investment on children.
The increase in life expectancy is partially to blame for the increase in elderly citizens, as there are now better medicines and medical procedures to cure ailments which could have easily killed a person 10 or 20 years ago. As Levine said, "There are more elderly and a larger proportion of elderly in the population now than ever before in the history of the world, and individuals live longer and have a longer span of healthy, vigorous life than ever before" . We have to prepare, not only to have more aged people in the work force, but also to have adequate pensions and supplements to aid these people when they do retire.