Health Challenges in Middle Adulthood: A Nursing Assignment Analysis

This nursing assignment examines the health concerns prevalent in middle adulthood (ages 40-55). It explores various health complications, including heart diseases, mental health issues, and the influence of factors like race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and environmental stressors. The paper also discusses the effects of social, physical, and environmental factors on the health of middle-aged individuals. As a social worker, the author emphasizes strategies like nutrition, exercise, and health check-ups to mitigate these challenges, highlighting the importance of early detection and proactive health management to improve the quality of life during this crucial life stage. References from various academic sources are included to support the arguments and findings in the assignment.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
MIDDLE AGED PEOPLE AND THEIR HEALTH CONCERN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Middle age (from 40 to 55 years) is not always associated with the chronological
development of the individual but also focuses about the physical, mental and psychological
development as several biological, social and psychological factors are accumulated and
reflected in the person (Zheng et al., 2017). There are several obstacles present in the process,
failing to which leads to physical and psychological health issues among the middle aged
individuals (Sorić et al., 2014).
This paper would discuss few of such health complications that affect while people reach
their middle adulthood and in that aspect, the race, ethnicity, socio-economic status and
demographic characteristics will also be discussed. Finally, as a social worker, my idea of
perceiving these social and environmental factors would be included in this paper.
Health concerns of middle adulthood
The most common type go health complication faced during middle adulthood are heart
diseases, bronchitis, arthritis, asthma, diabetes, genitourinary infections and strokes. Besides that
on mental aspect people starts facing depression, stress and other mental trauma making their
physical health more vulnerable (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2016). These health conditions arises
due to the lack of nutrition, sleep, proper physical activity or exercise and due to these the
environmental stressors starts affecting their mental and physical health leading to increased
health concerns among them (Sorić et al., 2014).
Stress is the most adverse environmental condition which influences majority of the
health concerns among middle aged people. Deng, Mo and Liu (2014) mentions that stress is
attack on someone’s ability to cope up with adverse conditions which is avoided during teenage

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or adulthood. However, in middle aged people, stressful conditions are unavoidable that makes
them vulnerable to chronic health conditions.
Effect of social, physical and environmental factors
The primary reason for increasing risk factors for middle aged people are associated to
their social life, their socio-economic conditions, their psychological condition and the
environment around them (Zheng et al., 2017). Race ethnicity and associated discrimination is
associated with increased stress, anxiety and agitation among middle aged people due to which
they are unable to approach healthcare facilities for their health conditions (Allen et al., 2014).
Further weak socio-economic aspects such as educational lack, financial instability, lack of reach
to good health and wellbeing could increase the mental and physical stressor in their body and
decreases the person’s resistance ability (Deng, Mo & Liu, 2014). Further, as per Allen et al.
(2014), with negative stressors, positive stress could also make people vulnerable to health
conditions in this age. Positive stress such as marriage, holidays, vacations and others could also
increase the level of stress inside the body which could exert in a negative way for the individual.
My perception about this situation
As a social worker, I perceive this condition as the most crucial phase of life as this age
gets influenced by environmental stress, social life, physical ailment, emotional quotient and
surrounding incidents. Therefore, instead of letting these situation overpower the thinking and
functionality of middle aged people, they should focus on the strategies using which they could
overcome the stressors (Temcheff et al., 2011). Nutrition, exercise, meditation are among few of
the strategies that could help such people to normalize their stressful life events and focus on

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their own health. Further, they should also understand the requirement of daily health checkups
and diagnosis so that presence of chronic health condition could be detected in its early stage.

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References
Allen, J., Balfour, R., Bell, R., & Marmot, M. (2014). Social determinants of mental
health. International review of psychiatry, 26(4), 392-407.
Deng, Z., Mo, X., & Liu, S. (2014). Comparison of the middle-aged and older users’ adoption of
mobile health services in China. International journal of medical informatics, 83(3), 210-
224.
Sorić, M., Jembrek Gostović, M., Gostović, M., Hočevar, M., & Mišigoj-Duraković, M. (2014).
Tracking of BMI, fatness and cardiorespiratory fitness from adolescence to middle
adulthood: the Zagreb Growth and Development Longitudinal Study. Annals of human
biology, 41(3), 238-243.
Temcheff, C. E., Serbin, L. A., Martin-Storey, A., Stack, D. M., Ledingham, J., & Schwartzman,
A. E. (2011). Predicting adult physical health outcomes from childhood aggression,
social withdrawal and likeability: A 30-Year prospective, longitudinal study.
International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 18(1), 5–12.
Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2016). Understanding human behavior and the social
environment, Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 10(1), 469-497.
Zheng, Y., Manson, J. E., Yuan, C., Liang, M. H., Grodstein, F., Stampfer, M. J., ... & Hu, F. B.
(2017). Associations of weight gain from early to middle adulthood with major health
outcomes later in life. Jama, 318(3), 255-269.

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