Chronic vs. Acute Conditions Quiz

Mental Health in Older Adults

• Depression is a common and treatable mental disorder, affecting 2-5% of the population, but it's underdiagnosed and undertreated in older adults (about 1% in community samples).
• Risk factors for depression in older adults include: being female, widowed/unmarried, lacking social support, having a chronic illness, living in a nursing home, and being a caretaker for another.
• Symptoms of depression may be more prevalent in older adults, but the diagnosis is less prevalent due to cohort effects.

Clinical Presentation of Depression

• Sad mood or loss of pleasure/interest that lasts most of the day, nearly every day, for at least 2 weeks.
• Additional symptoms include: appetite or weight change, sleep change, psychomotor retardation or agitation, loss of energy, worthlessness or excessive guilt, problems with concentration/indecisiveness, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.
• Depression causes distress or impairment in functioning in some way.

Chronic Conditions

• Chronic conditions develop slowly and worsen over an extended period (minimum of 3 months) and may be accompanied by residual functional impairment that necessitates long-term management.
• Examples of chronic conditions include: diabetes, cancer, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, and incontinence.
• Older adults' immune systems may not work as well, making them more prone to new infections and taking longer to fight off diseases.

Defining Health and Illness

• Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease or impairment.
• Illness is the presence of a physical or mental disease or impairment.
• Self-ratings of health are typically very predictive of future health outcomes.

Quality of Life

• Relating to specific diseases or conditions, it measures the extent to which distress from illness or side effects associated with treatment reduces the person's will to live.
• Two domains: health-related and non-health-related.
• Valuation of life is the degree to which one is attached to the present life, and is qualitative.

Stress and Age

• Age-related stress differs across the lifespan, with older adults experiencing chronic illness, disability, and loss, and younger adults experiencing marriage/divorce, conceiving children, and job stress.
• Age-related coping involves avoiding stressful situations, reporting less stress, using prior experiences as a guide, and using emotion-focused coping strategies to feel in control.

Effects of Stress on Health

• Short-term stress vs. chronic stress: chronic stress can lead to immune system suppression, increasing the risk of atherosclerosis and hypertension, and raising the level of LDL cholesterol.