HealthStyle (A Self-Test)
NORMAL OR NOT?Please print out this page, then check the appropriate space below to indicate whether you feel the conditions listed are normal conditions that may occur as persons age or whether you feel they are disease-related.
Normal Aging Disease-Related Condition 1. 
Senility 2. Increased irritability 3. Disturbance in long term memory 4. Osteoporosis 5. Depression 6. Loss of taste buds 7. Loss of short-term memory 8. Less rapid learning 9. Loss in ability to discriminate sounds 10. Yellowing in the lens of the eye 11. Decline in sexual relations 12. Declining physical strength 13. Decline in height 14. Sleep disturbances 15. Decline in vital lung capacity
DOCUMENTATION FOR NORMAL OR NOT?
- Disease
The majority of people who are 65 years old or older are not senile. Less than 10% of community dwelling elderly have significant or severe mental illness and another 10% to 32% have mild to moderate mental impairment; but the majority are without impairment (Blazer, 1980).
- Disease
Increased irritability often indicates that some physical problem is occurring, i.e., pain discomfort, but is not strong enough to be consciously identified. The Duke Second Longitudinal Study (Palmore, 1981c) found that 90% of persons aged 65 or over said they were never angry during the past week.
- Disease
The majority of persons who are 65 years old or older do not have serious memory defects. Various community surveys found that less than 20% of the age cannot remember the past president of the United States, their correct age, birth date, or telephone number (Pfeiffer, 1975). Most elderly have good long-term memory of events but may lack intricate details.
- Normal
Osteoporosis affects one in four women over age 60 and is a major cause of fractures of the spine, hip, wrist, and other skeletal parts (National Institute on Aging, 1983).
- Disease
The majority of people who are 65 years old or older do not have any mental illness. The National Institutes of Health (1991) estimate that 15% of community residents and as many as 25% to 30% of institutionalized residents aged 65 or over experience depressive symptoms. Studies have found that major depressive disorders were less than half as prevalent among those over age 65 as in the general population (Palmore, 1988).
- Normal
Taste buds do decline with age. Most persons over 60 have lost about half of their taste buds and after their late 70s, only about one-sixth of their taste buds remain (DiDomenico & Ziegler, 1989)
- Disease
Most studies of short-term memory agree that there is little or no decline in everyday short-term memory ability of normally aging adults (Palmore, 1988).
- Normal
Elderly people usually take longer to learn something new, compared with when they were younger. People's learning ability remains quite good, they may just learn slower.
- Normal
Every year after age 50, we lose some of our hearing ability. The decline is gradual and progressive, so by age 60 or 70 as many as 25% of the elderly have noticeable hearing impairment (National Institute on Aging, 1983).
- Normal
As we age, the lens loses elasticity and then begins to swell and thicken. Over time, the lens will lose its transparency (Orr, 1989). This change greatly affects perception.
- Disease
The majority of persons past age 65 continue to have interest in and capacity for sexual relations. Masters and Johnson (1966) found that the capacity for satisfying sexual relations usually continues into the decades of the seventies and beyond for healthy couples.
- Normal
Physical strength does tend to decline in old age; measurements of muscle exhibit decreased levels with age from about the third decade (Palmore, 1988). About one-third of the muscle mass is lost by age 80 (Tonna, 1987).
- Normal
Height does tend to decline in old age. Longitudinal studies show decreases in average height after age 55; caused mainly by changes in posture or "slump" and by decreases in the thickness of the intervertebral discs (Pfeiffer, 1977).
- Normal
Older persons require longer to fall asleep; deep sleep (stage 4) virtually disappears; and there are more frequent awakenings (Pfeiffer, 1977).
- Normal
Vital lung capacity does tend to decline in old age. Forced vital capacity (the volume of air that can be forcibly expelled in one breath) tends to decline about 3 or 4 deciliters per decade, regardless of whether measured longitudinally or cross-sectionally (Kannel & Hubert, 1982).
