Aging and the Elderly
AGING AND THE ELDERLY PATRICIA BUNTIN
DR: GORTNEY
LITHONIA CAMPUS
SOCIOLOGY 100
08/16/11
STRAYER UNIVERSITY
Aging is the length of time during which a being or thing has existed length of life (Webster dictionary). Growing old and becoming an elderly person can be challenging but, yet it can be very rewarding, it can bring a lot of good and bad. Aging has its rewards, but it presents the challenges of all stages of life. Growing old consist of gradual, ongoing changes in the body, changes such as shrinking in height in which the elderly tends to get shorter as he or she age. Elderly people tends to have less appetite which causes them to lose weight, and a decline in strength and vitality, which can sometimes make them feels very weak at times and needs either a cane or a walker or even someone to help assist them in walking. The life expectancy in the United States is going up which means people are living longer than before due to better medications that are out there which have raised the living standards. The life expectancy in the United States in the 1900’s for women would be to live only forty eight years, and for a male the life expectancy in the United States would be to live only forty- six years, as study shows that women in the U.S lives longer than men. Now females can be expected to live eighty years plus and men can be expected to live to be seventy-five years old. Greater material wealth and advances in medicine have raised living standards so that people benefit from better housing and nutrition. Medical advances have almost eliminated infectious diseases such as smallpox, measles, and diphtheria which had killed many infants and children many years ago. (John Macionis, 2009). As life becomes longer, the oldest segment of the United States population, people over the age of eighty-five years of age is increasing rapidly and is forty times greater than in nineteen hundreds. As the average age of the population
DR: GORTNEY
LITHONIA CAMPUS
SOCIOLOGY 100
08/16/11
STRAYER UNIVERSITY
Aging is the length of time during which a being or thing has existed length of life (Webster dictionary). Growing old and becoming an elderly person can be challenging but, yet it can be very rewarding, it can bring a lot of good and bad. Aging has its rewards, but it presents the challenges of all stages of life. Growing old consist of gradual, ongoing changes in the body, changes such as shrinking in height in which the elderly tends to get shorter as he or she age. Elderly people tends to have less appetite which causes them to lose weight, and a decline in strength and vitality, which can sometimes make them feels very weak at times and needs either a cane or a walker or even someone to help assist them in walking. The life expectancy in the United States is going up which means people are living longer than before due to better medications that are out there which have raised the living standards. The life expectancy in the United States in the 1900’s for women would be to live only forty eight years, and for a male the life expectancy in the United States would be to live only forty- six years, as study shows that women in the U.S lives longer than men. Now females can be expected to live eighty years plus and men can be expected to live to be seventy-five years old. Greater material wealth and advances in medicine have raised living standards so that people benefit from better housing and nutrition. Medical advances have almost eliminated infectious diseases such as smallpox, measles, and diphtheria which had killed many infants and children many years ago. (John Macionis, 2009). As life becomes longer, the oldest segment of the United States population, people over the age of eighty-five years of age is increasing rapidly and is forty times greater than in nineteen hundreds. As the average age of the population
References: Articlebase.com (2011, Elderly care) Dictionary.com, (Aging). Retrieved August 16, 2011. http://www.everydayhealth.com http://www.righthealth.com Macionis, J.(2009) And etc. it is a blessing to live such a long life.