What are the most common chronic conditions experienced by older adults? Arthritis and various forms of cardiovascular disease are the most preva­lent (National Center for Health Statistics, 2008b). Four others are also extremely important: diabetes, cancer, incontinence, and stress. Arthritis. We saw in Chapter 3 that osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis afflict many adults. It is […]

Having a chronic disease does not mean that one becomes incapacitated. Even though the type and severity of chronic conditions vary across peo­ple, most older adults manage to figure out how to accomplish the necessary tasks of daily living despite having a chronic condition. Although most people manage to accomplish the necessary tasks of daily […]

LEARNING OBJECTIVES •What are the most important issues in chronic disease? •What are some common chronic conditions across adulthood? • How can people manage chronic conditions? Moses is a 75-year-old African American man who worked as a lawyer all his life. Recently, he was diagnosed as having prostate cancer. Moses has heard about several treatment […]

You know what it feels like to be stressed. Whether it’s from the upcoming exam in this course, the traffic jam you sat in on your way home yesterday, or the demands your children place on you, stress Longevity, Health, and Functioning 119 seems to be everywhere. There is plenty of scientific evidence that over […]

Rosa, the immigrant from Mexico, is typical of older adults: She is beginning to experience some recur­ring health difficulties and finding out that she does not recover as quickly from even minor afflictions. You probably have had several encounters with ill­nesses that come on quickly, may range from mild to very severe, last a few […]

study of the relations between psychological, neu­rological, and immunological systems that raise or lower our susceptibility to and ability to recover from disease. The focus of much of this research has been on identifying the psychological triggers that start the process and result in cancer. Two general types of investigations have been conducted (Irwin, 2008): […]

We’ll bet if you asked most people what they want out of life, they would say something about a good quality of life. But what does that mean? Precise def­initions are hard to find. Sometimes people find it easier to say what quality of life is not: being depen­dent on a respirator while in a […]

LEARNING OBJECTIVES • What are the key issues in defining health and illness? • How is the quality of life assessed? • What normative age-related changes occur in the immune system? • What are the developmental trends in chronic and acute diseases? • What are the key issues in stress across adulthood? R osa is […]

Countries around the world differ dramatically in how long their populations live on average. As you can see in Figure 4.2, the current range extends Longevity, Health, and Functioning 113 Figure 4.2 International data on average life expectancy at birth. Note the differences between developed and developing countries. Source: http://www. census. gov/ipc/www/idb/tables. html. from 38 […]

A visit to a senior center or to a nursing home can easily lead to the question “Where are all the very old men?” Women’s average longevity is about 5 years more than men’s at birth (in 2004), nar­rowing to roughly 1 year by age 85 (Arias, 2006; National Center for Health Statistics, 2008a). These […]