OLD PEOPLE WHO HAVE HEALTH PROBLEMS

Old people who have health problems

Old people who have health problems

Introduction

In old age, the challenges of dealing with chronic illness and impairments in physical, sensory, and cognitive functioning have a pervasive impact on the nature and routine of everyday life. In this context, an important question in the geronto-logical literature concerns the extent to which individual differences in health status and functional capacity in very old age are linked to subjective well-being (SWB). SWB is viewed as a general indicator of psychological adaptation and successful aging. As such, measures of SWB provide an estimate of the effectiveness of social policies, welfare programs, and the success of medical and psychiatric treatments designed for the elderly population.

Old people who have health problems

Given the recent growth of the elderly population in developed countries, it has also become important to consider health and SWB in different phases of old age and to examine changes during old age. Some researchers suggest that the young old (or Third Age) be distinguished from the old and the oldest old. Suzman, Willis, and Manton (1992) identified 85 years of age as the criterion of membership in the oldest old category. The population over age 85, unlike any other age strata, is typically characterized by a higher percentage of women over men, higher levels of co morbidity and institutionalization, and greater consumption of medical and care services. Individuals born between, 1890-1915 who comprise the oldest old observed in 2000 also exemplify a set of characteristics that are cohort-specific: for example, they have a lower level of education compared with subsequent cohorts and a higher likelihood of long-term widowhood.

Whereas the majority of the young old begin to deal with health challenges in collaboration with their spouse, the majority of the oldest old (and in these case, typically older women) deal with declining health during widowhood. The different life circumstances associated with these proposed two phases of old age likely play a critical role with regard to the potential of the individual to maintain positive well-being. (http://www.preventelderabuse.org/help/available.html)

Increasingly, epidemiological and national surveys of the elderly focus on the trajectory and economics of service use associated with disability and frailty. Poor mental health outcomes are usually evaluated (e.g., dementia, depression). However, few studies include a wide range of health indicators (e.g., specific physical illnesses, functional health, subjective health) or measures of positive well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, satisfaction with aging, experience of positive emotions) that might enable researchers to tease apart differential relationships between components of well-being and different aspects of health. (Michael, 1997). It is also important to investigate changes in well-being over time.

The psychological literature abounds in studies of the so-called "well-being paradox" showing the efficacy of self-protective processes to minimize the effects of negative events in the short-term. There are, however, surprisingly few longitudinal studies of well-being. Furthermore, it is still an open question whether the irreversible changes in health and life conditions that characterize old age eventually set constraints on the operation of ...