1. INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY AGING AND HEALTH

2. 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

3. 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.

4. The Population is Aging The young-old(65-74) The old-old (75-84) The oldest-old (85 and older)

5. What is Aging?? Sociologically aging is the combination of biological, psychological and social processes that affect people as they grow older

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Functionalist theories of aging Disengagement theory-it is functional for society to remove people from their traditional roles when they become elderly

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

11. 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”

12. 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.

13. ageism

14. HIV DISEASE –PG 502