Factors affecting healthcare in old age

factors affecting healthcare in old age
Factors affecting healthcare in old age

Factors affecting healthcare in old age

Introduction

Old age is associated with different aging problems such as diseases, depression, loneliness, ego-integrity among others. However, leading to a successful old age is a dream of each person, but still, some factors affect older adults’ health. Thus, the primary objective of this report is to evaluate factors that influence health of aged people.

The influencers of the health problems in old age will be analyzed to determine the factors that are highly associated. This will lay a foundation on what can be done to improve the life of aged people, increase the longevity and successful life.

A sample of adults aged 50 years and above will be randomly selected, and given the questionnaire to fill. Collected data will be analyzed to determine the correlation of different variables that might be attributed to the health of old aged people.

More specific, the participation on leisure, life satisfaction, attending social clubs/events, positivity about their health, among others. The dependent variable is the number of times a person visits the doctors (only when sick).  The research will be designed to answer the following question: What are the main factors affecting old age health?

Literature Review

Aging is a process that is inevitable. Aging makes people susceptible to illness and other disabilities. Although this process is inevitable, measures can be taken to reduce the effects of the aging, as well as maintaining good health. This is because most of the old people are prone to risk factors that increase the chances of getting sick. These factors need to be addressed amicably, which will reduce the likelihood of old age problems. This is in agreement with Risk factors of ill health among older people (2016), health practitioners need to address the following factors adequately to risk factors.

First, old people need to be protected from injuries, like falling. Most of the old people become wearisome, making their bodies weak, which increases chances of injuries. Also, they should be protected from noncommunicable diseases, which may cause premature death. Most of the harmful behavior in early life may cause premature death.

Poor nutrition and becoming physically inactive as well as taking alcohol or smoking may contribute to chronic diseases (Strollo et al., 2015). Among other factors that need to be kept in check to avoid old age illness are like; poverty which can be tackled through encouraging social security saving. Avoiding social isolation, or exclusion and ensuring that people at old.

(Han et al., 2015) Stipulates that aging is a psychological, physical, social and wellness of a person in the later age. Just like a chain of reaction, the previous stage of life affect the subsequent in one way or the other. Therefore, people should prepare well in preparation for the next stage of their life. It is imperative to understand how to prepare at early age so that they can prepare for a healthy life in future. That’s why (Han et al., 2015) carried out research to determine some of the vital factors that are associated with old age illness and disability.

Such preparations are critical in ensuring that one has a quality of life, as well as improving other health-related attitudes. In an attempt to improve the quality of life, different scientific research have been conducted, utilizing biological means. Biological research has been done to understand healthy aging. These investigations aim at finding a combination of factors that optimize opportunities that retain the mental wellness, the excellent transition at old age stage.

Different biological explorations have been conducted to revolutionize the perspective of healthy aging. For instance, molecular, genetic, and cellular factors, which affect the aging processes. This, has revealed different environmental factors, social attributes, behavioral factors, co-existing conditions, among other factors that pose risks to successful aging. Biologists are aiming at improving and maintaining physical and psychological wellness. Different terms have been used to mean healthy aging, such as successive aging, productive aging, positive aging, and active aging.

These terms can be used interchangeably without losing the meaning. Paramedics have done different tasks in identifying cellular and molecular factors that highly influence the aging process; that may fasten the aging pace. This includes monitoring various stress, immune system, and the science behind the deterioration of cells (commonly referred as senescence). Thus, recent researches have been carried to isolate and identify some additional factors that increase the aging, and more importantly strategies of eluding those effects.

Also, deeper analysis has been conducted to understand how cellular, and molecular structure changes with aging. That is, using therapeutic approach has been used in determining the underlying aspect of what causes the decreasing function of the cells as well as the increased cases of illness among the aged people. Studies have been conducted to ensure that even after aging the physiological processes are maintained. In fact, most studies have pointed that increased number of chronic diseases are associated with the weakening of the molecular and cells in animals and the human body.

As earlier stated, life is a cycle, and people have to pass through different stages to become mature and become of age. Importantly, the researcher can understand whether developmental, early life and prenatal life is associated with the success old age. Consumption of harmful substances can have a detrimental effect on the human body, and when stem cell is affected, it is not good news.  

This is because stem cells are responsible for replenishing cells and tissues throughout and organism’s life. Thus, epidemiology has explored, to identify factors that may affect earlier stages of life that may contribute to reduces life longevity. Through these studies, they are able to point out some measures that can be adopted to minimize these factors effect during the old age.

It is with great concern investigations have been performed to determine the underlying association between obesity and metabolic status especially on old age. Most of the chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, insulin signal, thus, studies have assessed the association between these factors and old age. Different studies have been completed on how to maintain quality life, at the same time have a nutritional, and cognitive practices that improve the successive old age.

In this way, it has been pointed that physical exercise is highly associated with overweight, which increases risks of old age. Thus, as people emphasize on eating responsibly, people should have ample time sleeping, taking physical exercise classes, increasing social events attendances. This will act as a method used to mitigate chances of getting cancer, diabetes, digestive diseases, musculoskeletal disorders among the aged people.

Life satisfaction has nowadays been considered as a basic necessity for healthy life. This includes a desire to maintain a good leading life, live a good lifestyle with physical and social participation. That is, successful life is beyond disease free living, rather it extends to the mental wellness of an individual, physical participations, and social wellness. The state of mind plays a significant role in helping the positive health, which reduces the stress that may maybe a root cause of chronic diseases, depression, and self-pity (Singh, 2015).

This has paved the way for significant research to be conducted on different factors attributed to the mental ill-health. The mind is thought to be connected to psychological which impacts on the body making it weak and thus may lead to falling sick. Thus, the state of mind is associated with disease intervention and prevention on old people (Singh, 2015). Thus, it is important to determine the psychological factors associated with the mental ill-health, which helps in reducing cases of depression, loneliness, self-efficacy, and self-esteem.

In that light, different research has been carried out to examine the how factors such as self-esteem, ego-integrity, leisure participation (as a physical as well as a social activity), loneliness, depression as the leading factors associated with healthy old age. Thus, mitigations need to be adopted to curb these problems. In accordance with (Luo et al., 2012), the mentality of aged people about their health plays a vital role in their wellbeing and at the same time their mortality. Therefore, this needs to be checked to improve the psychological problem the old aged people might be undergoing.

All these factors have a close relationship with old age health, and they play a vital role in the wellbeing of the elderly. However, this paper will exclusively use five factors to determine whether they are associated with the dependent variable. These number of variables makes the paper have a wider scope since most of the study assess one or two independent variables.

Ethical consideration

A number of issues will be considered to protect the participants, where questions will be design to ensure that they will not evoke psychological torment. Also, the participants will be made aware on the importance of the research, and they will be informed that they can discontinue anytime they wish. The information shared will not be disclosed to anyone, and will be treated with great confidentiality.

The data will be enough in answering the research question. Also, hypothesis test will be executed successfully since the data used will be in nominal scale, which will use non-parametric tests like chi-square to infer whether there is any association. This is because the non-parametric tests can also be performed using small sample sizes.

Conclusion

Based on the literature review obtained, there is great need to understand old age health, improve their condition to ensure that they live a successful and longevity life. The variable selected will show the nature of association as well as the magnitude. Also, using simple random sampling technique, sufficient information can be collected to make inference about the influences of the old age.

The researcher will make a recommendation on the best practices that can yield productive/healthy old age, which interns if adopted can lead to improving the quality of life the aged people live. In achieving this, the researcher would have met the desired goal of the research.

References

Han, K., Lee, Y., Gu, J., Oh, H., Han, J., & Kim, K. (2015). Psychosocial factors for influencing healthy aging in adults in Korea. Retrieved 9 December 2016, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4367838/

Luo, Y., Hawkley, L. C., Waite, L. J., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2012). Loneliness, health, and mortality in old age: A national longitudinal study. Social science & medicine, 74(6), 907-914. From http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953612000275

Risk factors of ill health among older people. (2016). Euro.who.int. Retrieved 9 December 2016, from http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Life-stages/healthy-ageing/data-and-statistics/risk-factors-of-ill-health-among-older-people

Singh, S. D. (2015). Loneliness, depression and sociability in old age. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, Volume 2, Issue 2, No. 2, 73. from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vB_gCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA73&dq=Singh,+S.+D.+(2015).+Loneliness,+depression+and+sociability+in+old+age.+The+International+Journal+of+Indian+Psychology,+Volume+2,+Issue+2,+No.+2,+73.&ots=c6ylpF0c99&sig=Cs31GL0uoc8S_r95VqYlZQ10qWM

Strollo, S. E., Caserotti, P., Ward, R. E., Glynn, N. W., Goodpaster, B. H., & Strotmeyer, E. S. (2015). A review of the relationship between leg power and selected chronic disease in older adults. The journal of nutrition, health & aging, 19(2), 240-248. From http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12603-014-0528-y

Tchkonia, T., Zhu, Y., Van Deursen, J., Campisi, J., & Kirkland, J. L. (2013). Cellular senescence and the senescent secretory phenotype: therapeutic opportunities. The Journal of clinical investigation, 123(3), 966-972. From http://www.jmir.org/article/view/2439/1

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