Ageing Flashcards
What are some challenging facing an ageing population?
- Increased demand for health care
- Bigger need for trained health workforce
- Increasing demand for long-term care
- Ageism
What are the causes of population ageing?
- Improvements in sanitation, housing, nutrition, medicine
- Life expectancy rising
- Falls in fertility
- Decline in premature mortality
Name and describe the two types of ageing.
Intrinsic - natural, universal, inevitable
Extrinsic - dependent on external factors: UV rays, smoking, air pollution
Give some examples of intrinsic ageing.
- Loss of skin elasticity
- Loss of hair & hair colour
- Decrease in size and weight
- Loss of joint flexibility
- More susceptible to illness
- Less efficient memory
What causes the gender bias in longevity?
20% biological
80% environmental (men take more risks)
Define morbidity.
Incidence of illness/disease in the population
Define mortality.
How many deaths occur
Name the main causes of death.
Circulatory disease
Cancers
Respiratory diseases
Dementia
What is bed-blocking?
When a person has recovered from an acute illness/injury but it is unsafe for the patient to be discharged (they are unable to cope at home)
Give some alternatives to recurrent hospital admission for older people.
Supporting discharge from inpatient care
Provide alternatives in acute care (community care)
Chronic disease management in community
What’s the role of a GP In terms of older people?
To help prevent unnecessary loss of function
To prevent and treat health problems which adversely affect quality of life in old age
To supplement the existing system of informal care and prevent its breakdown
To give older people a good death as well as a good life
What’s the difference between an objective and subjective caregiver burden?
Objective - what they carer actually has to do
Subjective - how much the carer minds doing it
