Adult aging processes and life course development

¶ … Lubben, James E. And Damron-Rodriguez, JoAnn. 2003. " An international approach to community health care for older adults." Family and Community Health. October-December. available from Proquest Database.

In this article, Lubben and Damron-Rodriguez propose a model for community-based primary healthcare that could be more responsive to the needs of the growing elderly population around the globe. Lubben and Damron-Rodriguez base their study by analyzing the results and ramifications of the community healthcare approach developed by the World Health Organization Kobe Centre for Health Development (WKC). Based on the results of the WKC approach, the authors make recommendations regarding changes needed to allow community healthcare organizations to better serve the needs of older adults.

The authors observe that one important aspect of the WKC approach is the promotion of healthy ageing. By delaying disability through educating individuals regarding the importance of nutrition and family support, the WKC thus advocates a community-based approach to caring for the elderly. Through such an approach, the WKC can be adapted to enhance the capacity of older adults to care for themselves and to help them maintain a better quality of life.

There is a tendency among older adults to feel alienated and shut away from their surroundings, a factor that promotes depression and illness. Such communal groups have already proven successful in other countries, such as Israeli kibbutzes. By recasting care for the elderly as in terms of larger social networks - such as community groups - Lubben and Damron-Rodriguez make timely recommendations how to make the current community healthcare in countries such as the United States more responsive to the needs of its ageing population.

Thane, Pat. 2003. "Social histories of old age and aging." Journal of Social History. Fall. available from Proquest Database.

Different cultures attach varying meanings to the concept of aging. Even among Western societies, where aging is often viewed negatively and associated with decay, there is considerable difference in the concepts regarding the role of aging in society.

In this article, Thane compares how societies as diverse as the ancient Greeks, medieval England and present-day New Zealand have regarded aging. In doing so, Thane discerns a change in the way Western society accords its older people with the rise of retirement, largely a 20th century phenomenon. In medieval England, for example, Thane found that it was normal for 80-year-old widows to continue working as spinners. Older women, in particular, lived with the families of their adult children, contributing to the family income and acting as caregivers while the parents toiled in the fields. In doing so, the elderly population also acted as important agents of intergenerational change, acting as primary socialization agents for their grandchildren.

By the 20th century, however, this intergenerational exchange had been broken. While old people had gained from the medical knowledge generated in the 20th century, they have also become largely marginalized from society. Most families no longer depend on older people for care giving, contributing to the declining social value of the elderly. However, Thane rightly points out that this declining social role is often neglected in favor of the medical and scientific issues that are related to the aging body. Though the author makes no suggestions on how this role could be recast, his research presents a solid springboard regarding the social history and social aspects of aging.

Snowdon, David A. 2003. "Healthy aging and dementia: Findings from the Nun Study." Annals of Internal Medicine. available from Proquest Database.

Using case studies drawn from the landmark Nun Study, Snowden examines the links between healthy aging, dementia and the development of cognitive difficulties associated with Alzheimer's disease. Snowden's own research focuses on examining why some brains resist the development of neuropathic lesions, translating to a resistance to symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and by extension, a healthier and more cognitively alert old age.

The Nun Study, began in 1991, has given researchers a unique longitudinal database to study data regarding the early- and middle-life risk factors that cause dementia and other cognitive difficulties in old age. Snowden makes full use of the data already available, including postmortem comparisons of the brains of the nuns who have participated in this unique study.