ageing

Question 1

psychological changes with age

Answer 1

• processing skills slower
• working memory impaired
• attention e.g. competing voices
• verbal vs performance skills

Question 2

physiological changes with age

Answer 2

• muscle strength, stiffness
• cardiac output
• lung volume
• renal function

Question 3

diseases more common in older age

Answer 3

• cognitive decline and dementia
• frailty - disability - arthritis
• congestive HF
• COPD
• renal failure

Question 4

older patients are at risk of

Answer 4

• medication interactions and vulnerability
• minor illness more susceptible
• immobility - 15% muscle strength/day

Question 5

biology of ageing

Answer 5

• survival - risk of dying doubles every 8 years
• mortality substitution - CVD for infection
• animals in the wild don’t age -reproductive success impt
• genetic factors explain 25% of longevity

Question 6

risk factors for dementia over a life course

Answer 6

early life = less education
midlife = hearing loss
late life = smoking
               depression
               physical inactivity
               social isolation