INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

AGING AND HEALTH

THE WORLD’S POPULATION IS GETTING OLDER American children born in 1990 have a life

expectancy of 78 years (Natl. Center for Health Statistics-07)

2000 yrs ago, the average newborn Roman baby could expect to live to the age of 22

The Population is Aging

In 1800 the average person’s chance of living to the age of 100 was roughly 1 in 20 million-today it’s 1 in 50

By 2030 there will be more elderly people than young people in the U.S.

The Population is Aging

The young-old(65-74)

The old-old (75-84)

The oldest-old (85 and older)

What is Aging??

Sociologically aging is the combination of biological, psychological and social processes that affect people as they grow older

Biological Aging

Biological aging typically means things like: declining vision Hearing loss Wrinkles Decline of muscle mass/accumulation of fat Drop in cardiovascular efficiency

***These changes can be offset in part by health, diet and exercise

Psychological Aging

These effects are much less well established than physical effects

We assume memory, learning, intelligence, skills and motivation decline but this is a more complex issue

Memory and learning ability don’t decline significantly until very late in life although speed of recall may slow

Social Aging

Refers to the norms, values and roles that are culturally associated with a chronological age

These ideas differ from society to society and change over time

Functionalist theories of aging

Disengagement theory-it is functional for society to remove people from their traditional roles when they become elderly

Activity Theory

Elderly people who are busy and engaged, can be functional for society; the elderly can best serve society by being active

Conflict theory and Aging The elderly can be

seen as competing with the young for increasingly scarce resources

Among the elderly, those who fare worse economically are women, low-income folks and “minorities”

Symbolic Interactionist perpectives and Aging

We modify our behavior through the life course-we adapt to the changing expectations of our culture

Continuity theory- older adults can substitute satisfying new roles for those they’ve lost.

ageism

HIV DISEASE –PG 502