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Gerontology – Literature Exam Questions
And Answers 100% Pass.
Gerontology - Answer✔discipline that studies human ageing. Is interdisciplinary, with
disciplines like economy, sociology, psychology, and epidemiology and of course, biology.
Origin in Greek. 'Geron' in Greek means old man and 'gerh' means growing up or aging. The
word refers to being old and also to the process of ageing. The word 'gerontology' was first used
in the 19th century, but throughout the history, people have been interested in gerontology
(Cicero, Roman Empire).
There are many gerontological discussions - Answer✔that stress the diversity of old age. Some
gerontologists state that people become old when they turn 50, others state that people become
old once they reach 75 years. Researchers did find a solution for the differences of opinion and
that solution is to see old age as a sequence of two separate and distinct periods of life. These
periods are called the young-old age and the old-old age or the third age and the fourth age.
The third age - Answer✔is a period in which people have a relative freedom and good health.
People in this age period don't have the responsibility for the upbringing of their children and
they also don't have to work.
The fourth age - Answer✔is a period in which there is an accelerated decline of mental and
physical health. People in this period have also losses in social relationships. Every
understanding of old age has its advantages and disadvantages. Also, the usefulness of the
understanding depends on the context.
One of the biggest differences between older Europeans is their gender - Answer✔There are
about as many women as men in Europe, different in older age groups. There are a bit more
women aged 65 years and older in Europe than men. In some countries, this difference is
marginal (Iceland and Macedonia), while in others two out of three older people are female (the
Ukraine and Latvia).
That gender difference - Answer✔results from two factors. The first, Women live longer than
men do. Over-represented in the older age-groups. The second factor is that mostly men fight as
soldiers in wars, so war-related deaths are particularly common among men.
Another difference between old Europeans is in their social networks differences -
Answer✔These are connections with friends and kin. Important for older people, because they
enhance their wellbeing and health. These days' kinships are looser than in the decades before,
but there are differences between countries. In Norway, Sweden and Finland there is extended
de-familiarization. In Eastern Europe and in South Europe, family ties are still very important.
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Another big difference between older Europeans is their socio-economic status differences -
Answer✔tells us the position a person has in society. Is determined from wealth, occupation and
educational level. The wealth of older Europeans is relatively low in Eastern European and
relatively high in continental European countries. The educational level is also higher in
Continental Europe and Northern Europe, than in Southern Europe, like Spain and Greece. Also,
the occupational prestige of older people is higher in Continental and Northern Europe than in
Southern Europe.
Health differences in Europe - Answer✔(Men have higher self-perceived health) Level of
resources for health care is the lowest and the people from those countries have the highest
prevalence of smoking and obesity. By contrast, in Northern and Western Europe, people have
the best health care and the lowest level of risk factors for diseases. There are variations within
the regions. The highest proportion of obese men can be found in the Czech Republic (31%), but
the lowest proportion of obese men can also be found in Eastern Europe, in Moldova (10%).
Gerontology - Answer✔The study of these components and their interrelations. Components are
biological, social, spiritual, environmental and psychological in nature. The sub-discipline of
gerontology which focuses on physical processes, is called bio- and health gerontology.
Bio-gerontology - Answer✔biologists and biochemists study the process of ageing on a
molecular level and they try to figure out how the ageing process affects organs and the entire
body. Some of the questions answered by biogerontologists are why human cells die and how
organs stay stable over time. These scientists see biological ageing of the body as the result of
the appearance and disappearance of the cells of organs.
Biological aging - Answer✔Organs have cells that die and that are replaced by new cells. De
Grey is a biogerontologist, concluded that ageing can be seen as a disease. However, some
gerontologists think that he is being too optimistic. This is because biogerontologists use animals
like rats and flies for their studies and it is not clear whether these results can be generalized to
humans.
Health gerontology - Answer✔Doctors who do clinical research and epidemiologists. Is linked to
the environmental and social aspects of human ageing. How biological changes affect daily lives
and how health care services have to adapt. Questions with which health gerontologists are
concerned with are how one can help people to live longer and how one can increase the healthy
life expectancy. Looks at social inequalities when trying to answer the questions. This can be
between different educational levels or income groups. two levels of health-related intervention
are underlined. These levels are the individual level and the population level. The individual
level might focus on health promotion and prevention and the population level might focus on
housing conditions and organization of social care systems.
Looking at the traditional definition of health - Answer✔health is the absence of disease. When
people age, their health deteriorates and people develop diseases. Old age and good health were
therefore seen as mutually exclusive states.
This opposition can be explained with senescence - Answer✔describes biological ageing. Bodies
react to changes more slowly with senescence and as a consequence, they recover from illnesses
with more difficulty. Because of this, health declines in old age and disease become more
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common. There are two different reasons why older people have more health problems. The first
reason is that ageing itself causes health to decline (coronary heart diseases). The second reason
is that diseases require a long time to develop and they will therefore only manifest in older ages
(certain types of cancer). Need to differ what bodily changes are normal, and which signal
diseases.
The World Health Organization (WHO) sees health - Answer✔In 1948, they proposed that
health is not only a physical state, but also a social well-being state include the subjective aspect
of social well-being in the terminology of health. But the question that arose because of this, is
what social well-being actually is. Gerontologists say that social well-being is a good quality of
life.
According to them, quality of life - Answer✔has two dimensions. The first dimension is health
related, like pain and discomfort. The second dimension is not health-related. This second
dimension refers to personal resources.
Personal resources - Answer✔Some of these might be the capability to find spiritual satisfaction
or the capability to form friendships. Because of this dual nature, good health in old age can be
maintained by preventing diseases and enhancing personal resources. Strategies for promoting
healthy ageing need to look at both ways to be healthy.
Active ageing - Answer✔is optimizing opportunities for health, participation of security and with
this, enhancing quality of life.
Successful ageing - Answer✔looks a bit like active ageing, but it has been received a more
critical reception, is a combination of three elements: absence of diseases and of risk for disease,
engagement in productive activities and maintenance of cognitive and physical abilities. Both
active ageing and successful ageing underline the activities of older people. Successful ageing
does not draw attention to quality of life, implies that people age successfully if they do not age
at all, thus active aging term is preferred.
The three important approaches for reaching healthy ageing - Answer✔are learning from health
promotion strategies, slowing down the ageing process and utilizing the potentials of preventive
medicine.
Health promotions - Answer✔focus on reducing the risks leading to four diseases in particular:
lung diseases, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases (also strokes). The promotions
suggest e.g. moderate intake of alcohol, not smoking, also, a stable social and psychological
situation
Another strategy is slowing down the ageing process - Answer✔Ageing as a life-long process.
The foundations of healthy ageing are laid during ones childhood and youth. If you have a
healthy life-style at a young age, the chances of you ageing healthy will be higher. Also anti -
aging medicines suggested sometimes, however not proven to be successful.
Another approach in promoting healthy ageing is to utilize the potentials of preventive medicine
- Answer✔is for people who did not yet fall ill. This strategy tries to avoid that the healthy
individuals develop diseases. Preventive medicine makes use of the other two approaches just
described. It also finds an early diagnosis of diseases important, because this allows for higher
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chances of recovery and more effective treatments. Early diagnosis can help us to ensure good
health in old age.
The state of frailty - Answer✔is the state in which older people are especially vulnerable to have
accidents or fall ill. Frailty can be considered a disease if three or more of the following criteria
are present: Self-reported Exhaustion, Unintentional weight loss (4.5 kilograms in one year),
Low physical ability, Slow walking speed
Informal care arrangements - Answer✔are arrangements in which people provide unpaid care to
relatives or friends. Usually, women provide this. Increased aging might put higher burden on
these women. However, population ageing goes together with a decrease of children in families'
lower need of childcare. Older people stay longer healthy, might support as well. This might ease
the situation of middle-aged women in informal care arrangements.
Other is formal care arrangements - Answer✔are arrangements in which paid professionals
provide care in the homes of frail person or in institutions, like nursing homes. These
professionals can belong to the social care sector, the health care sector or, to a separate long-
term care sector. That sector is specialized in the provision of care over a longer period of time.
The older users have to cope with several health problems and their care needs change over time.
Because of this, they might need services from different health and social care providers.
Countries spend different amounts on formal care arrangements. Countries with high public
health care expenses are located in Continental and Northern Europe. The countries with the
lower public health care expenses are located in Eastern Europe. There are also more long-term
care facilities in Northern Europe than in Southern Europe. Northern Europe has also more long-
term care workers than Southern Europe and Eastern Europe.
Compression of morbidity - Answer✔states that the most severe health problems are
concentrated in the last years of life. This means that living longer goes together with more years
in good health and health problems will arise in a higher chronological age.
The expansion of morbidity hypothesis - Answer✔states that the number of life years increases
when the life-span increases. This means that living longer will result in spending more years
battling health problems. Evidence has shown that both hypotheses might be in part accurate. It
seems that the most severe health problems are concentrated in the last years of life and the years
before that are characterized by chronic diseases which do not lead to disability. A person who
can cope with chronic diseases can have a pleasant old age. Consequently policy-makers should
consider attitudes and social factors when striving to prolong lives.
Gerontopsychology - Answer✔look at the effects of ageing on the brain and the personality.
They also how cognitive functions change when people age and how individuals can cope with
the changes to maintain a high quality of life. One age-related cognitive change is dementia. That
is a disease that causes memory loss and capability loss. Gerontopsychology looks at the stability
and changes of behavior and experience of people in their later life. thinks that processes of
development and change when one ages is not a unidirectional decline process, but a process that
can be stable or multidirectional. Gerontopsychology looks at the developmental potentials of
older people and at their environmental and personal resources. The research has shifted from
pathological to healthy ageing.
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