The WHO World report on ageing and health is not for the book shelf it is a living breathing testament to all older people who have fought for their voice to be heard at all levels of government across disciplines and sectors. - Mr Bjarne Hastrup President International Federation on Ageing and CEO DaneAge This report outlines a framework for action to foster Healthy Ageing built around the new concept of functional ability. This will require a transformation of health systems away from disease based curative models and towards the provision of older-person-centred and integrated care. It will require the development sometimes from nothing of comprehensive systems of long term care. It will require a coordinated response from many other sectors and multiple levels of government. And it will need to draw on better ways of measuring and monitoring the health and functioning of older populations. These actions are likely to be a sound investment in society's future. A future that gives older people the freedom to live lives that previous generations might never have imagined. The World report on ageing and health responds to these challenges by recommending equally profound changes in the way health policies for ageing populations are formulated and services are provided. As the foundation for its recommendations the report looks at what the latest evidence has to say about the ageing process noting that many common perceptions and assumptions about older people are based on outdated stereotypes. The report's recommendations are anchored in the evidence comprehensive and forward-looking yet eminently practical. Throughout examples of experiences from different countries are used to illustrate how specific problems can be addressed through innovation solutions. Topics explored range from strategies to deliver comprehensive and person-centred services to older populations to policies that enable older people to live in comfort and safety to ways to correct the problems and injustices inherent in current systems for long-term care.
Social isolation and loneliness are serious yet underappreciated public health risks that affect a significant portion of the older adult population. Approximately one-quarter of community-dwelling Americans aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated, and a significant proportion of adults in the United States report feeling lonely. People who are 50 years of age or older are more likely to experience many of the risk factors that can cause or exacerbate social isolation or loneliness, such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and sensory impairments. Over a life course, social isolation and loneliness may be episodic or chronic, depending upon an individual's circumstances and perceptions. A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that social isolation presents a major risk for premature mortality, comparable to other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity. As older adults are particularly high-volume and high-frequency users of the health care system, there is an opportunity for health care professionals to identify, prevent, and mitigate the adverse health impacts of social isolation and loneliness in older adults. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults summarizes the evidence base and explores how social isolation and loneliness affect health and quality of life in adults aged 50 and older, particularly among low income, underserved, and vulnerable populations. This report makes recommendations specifically for clinical settings of health care to identify those who suffer the resultant negative health impacts of social isolation and loneliness and target interventions to improve their social conditions. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults considers clinical tools and methodologies, better education and training for the health care workforce, and dissemination and implementation that will be important for translating research into practice, especially as the evidence base for effective interventions continues to flourish.
Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Provides accurate and well-documented information on the impact of diet and physical activity in the prevention and management of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and healthy aging. This authoritative textbook examines the independent and combined impact of diet and physical activity in the prevention and management of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, with special emphasis on the elderly populations. In this book the authors: Provide the latest data on the association between a suboptimal diet and physical inactivity and chronic disease. Examine the role of epigenetics on longevity. Discuss the fundamentals of healthy aging. Highlight the role of well-known dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean diet and the Nordic diet in favorable health outcomes, including cardiovascular, metabolic health, and healthy aging. Discuss the health outcomes of physical activity and healthy aging. Present the most recent evidence-based data on the independent and synergistic impact of diet and exercise on disease prevention and management including, heart disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, kidney failure, cancer and other conditions. Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease: Diet, Physical Activity and Healthy Aging is an excellent textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in medical and health-related disciplines and for health professionals, including dietitians and nutritionists, exercise physiologists, athletic trainers, nurses, physicians, geriatricians, and other health professionals with a special focus in older adults. This book is also a highly useful reference for health professionals interested in introducing diet and physical activity as an intervention for healthy aging as well as the prevention and management of cardiovascular and other metabolic diseases that are prevalent in aging populations.
Presents the results of the MacArthur Foundation Study of Aging in America, which show how to maintain optimum physical and mental strength throughout later life.
Does a longer life mean a healthier life? The number of adults over 65 in the United States is growing, but many may not be aware that they are at greater risk from foodborne diseases and their nutritional needs change as they age. The IOM's Food Forum held a workshop October 29-30, 2009, to discuss food safety and nutrition concerns for older adults.
This book is an evidence-based review of the practical challenges of dealing with patients receiving dialysis. The first section covers technical and procedural considerations such as choosing the hemodialysis membrane and choosing the best dialysis option. The second section covers clinical considerations such as infection and the treatment of specific renal disease complications. The book includes numerous illustrations and tables and drug charts for dialysis patients. This edition's current outcomes chapter has been expanded to include patient depression and improving quality of care. New chapters cover dialysis in the ICU, valvular heart disease, and pre-emptive renal transplantation.
Are animals designed economically? The theory of symmorphosis predicts that the size of the parts in a system must be matched to the overall functional demand. Weibel shows how animals as different as shrews, pronghorns, dogs, goats--even humans--all develop from essentially the same blueprint by variation of design.
Greater longevity is an indicator of human progress in general. Increased life expectancy and lower fertility rates are changing the population structure worldwide in a major way: the proportion of older persons is rapidly increasing, a process known as population ageing. The process is inevitable and is already advanced in developed countries and progressing quite rapidly in developing ones. The 2007 Survey analyses the implications of population ageing for social and economic development around the world, while recognising that it offers both challenges and opportunities. Among the most pressing issues is that arising from the prospect of a smaller labour force having to support an increasingly larger older population. Paralleling increased longevity are the changes in intergenerational relationships that may affect the provision of care and income security for older persons, particularly in developing countries where family transfers play a major role. At the same time, it is also necessary for societies to fully recognise and better harness the productive and social contributions that older persons can make but are in many instances prevented from making. The Survey argues that the challenges are not insurmountable, but that societies everywhere need to put in place the policies required to confront those challenges effectively and to ensure an adequate standard of living for each of their members, while respecting and promoting the contribution and participation of all.