Approaches to Health, Well-being and Ageing

Life Course
Approaches to Health,
Well-being and Ageing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In the biological sense, ageing is the result of combination of varieties of molecular and
cellular damage over a period of time. This makes physical capacity and mental capacity
decrease gradually, increases risk of growing diseases and last, death (Calder and et. Al, 2018).
The changes which take place are never linear and are inconsistent, it is directly related to the
age of the person in years. Some 75 years old have good health and are active whereas other 75
years are not that active and need help from others to move and work. The challenges of ageing
are: Ageism and old social norms have given isolation and marginalisation of old people in
communities of rural and urban. Home and community are not made with longevity which
creates barriers in movement , independence and safety. In this essay ageing is explained that
how an individual gets old with time and in these challenges faced by the elder people are
described in detail that how they are affected with these challenges which make them to lead a
hard and unhealthy life. People who are ageing need care so that their health does not get
affected because treatment in old age is very complicated as body also gets affected because it
creates so much stress in the body.
MAIN BODY
The lifespan of human is continuously increasing all over the world. A long life is
important because it brings opportunities for older persons as well as their family. More years
give a chance to opt new activity like education or passion which was neglected in earlier days.
Older persons also have contribution in their family and community. But their contribution
depends upon the factor called health (Davidson, 2016). But in a survey it has founded that older
persons are leading better life in health as compared to their parents. In high income and
developed countries severe diseases in older people have decreased in the 30 years. It has been
also recorded that disabilities did not change from mild to moderate level. If older persons
experience their extra years in better health and active with the environment that supports then
the it can increase the value of doing things than the younger people.
Ageing comes when molecular and cellular damage. It decreases the physical capacity
and increases the risk of getting illness and diseases. The main reason of ageing is biological
changes but there are other reasons also like retirements, relocation from old house to new house,
by the death of family members and friends. Psychological well-being and health are

interrelated, the relation between them become more vital at the older ages because chances of
chronic diseases increase as person comes in advance age. The most common health issues faced
by older people are hearing problems, eyes issues like cataracts, pain in back and neck,
depression, diabetes and so on. At the older age people experience so many diseases in a single
time. Geriatric syndromes are complex diseases that occur in later life of the person. This
syndrome is the predicator of death, but there are many countries who have developed medicines
for this. There are many factors that influence healthy ageing: environments are vital influence to
develop and maintain behaviours that are healthy (Dobner, Muster and Fortuijn, 2016).
For the maintenance of healthy behaviours in the whole life then the person should adopt
eating healthy, indulge in exercises and avoiding consumption of tobacco all these help in
decreasing the risk of non-transmitting diseases and increase improvement in capacity mentally
and physically. Behaviours are also vital in the old age as training are necessary to keep muscle
mass and nutritious food help to stay away from reverse frailty and cognitive functions.
Supportive environments are basically availability of facilities like safe buildings and transport
medium that give access of easy to walk even when the person lacks in capacity. But there are
many challenges that are faced by the people as they are getting into older age, some of them are
explained below:There is no specific age that define people as older because some 70 years old
might be very strong mentally and physically same as 25 year old. As there are people who are
not strong mentally and physically even in young age (Dwolatzky and et. Al, 2017).
Physical and social environment has impact on health behaviour and opportunities. The
relation with environment is disturbed by individual's characteristics like family a person born
into, ethnicity and sex all these lead to inequalities in the health of a person. This proportion of
diversity in old age is because of the impact of health inequities in the whole life of a person. The
older people generally faces the challenge of social isolation, it is the situation where people lack
in living teams and interacting with other people. Older people intentionally and unintentionally
get into social isolation some of the reasons are family violence, habit of living alone, loss of a
partner, disabilities and travelling issues. Results of social isolation is dangerous for the older
people as they are also suffering from many health issues (Fleming, Mason and Paxton, 2018).
Older people who are not pressurised for health care and those whose health condition get
worst by the time are more likely to become socially isolated. This social has increased the
depression level in older people which also one of the major issues. Now elders have moved out