The Elderly in America and Their Quality of Life

Lecture Script: The Elderly – Living Life to the Fullest
Today, there are approximately 53.5 million elderly people aged 65 years or older living in the United States, accounting for about 16% of the total population (United States people, 2019). This demographic group is also the fastest growing in the country, and current projections indicate the there will be far more elderly people in the foreseeable future who are living to even older ages. Indeed, some scientists believe that due to ongoing innovations in health care and medical device technologies, humans born today could live to reach 150 years and even older (Glor, 2012). Given these astounding trends in human history, the question emerges concerning how the elderly can best maintain their quality of life as they become centenarians and beyond. The purpose of this lecture script is to provide a review of the relevant scholarly literature concerning these issues, followed by a summary of the research and key findings in the conclusion.
Review and Discussion
The World Health Organization (WHO) has advocated an aging model wherein the elderly remain robust and active. In this context, the definition of quality of life provided by WHO states that this is “individuals’ perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns” (as cited in Singh & Srivastava, 2014, p. 12). Maintaining the quality of life, however, becomes increasingly difficult as people grow ever older. In this regard, Olson (2018) advises that, “The frail elderly often suffer from a combination of multiple chronic diseases that produce disability and predispose them to vulnerability [to] acute illness. The proportion of those who are limited in their ability to care for themselves has been rising” (p. 548). In fact, an unfortunate and undesirable concomitant outcome of innovations in health care and medical device technologies has been the extension of life for many elderly people who experience profound suffering due to their age-related disabilities and infirmities. Moreover, it is reasonable to posit that these issues will become even more pronounced as people grow even older in the foreseeable future.
One issue in particular deserves mentioning at this point. One of the most common methods of prolonging life for the elderly is the use of feeding tubes. These devices require painful surgical insertion and deny the elderly with one of the fundamental pleasures they have enjoyed all of their lives – eating and tasting foods and beverages. It is reasonable to suggest that many of the decisions to resort to a feeding tube to keep an elderly family member alive are made by well-intention but misinformed family members who fail to receive the facts they need to make an informed choice from their health care professionals.
Empirical and a growing body of evidence indicate that some physicians will simply recommend the use of feeding tubes just to make the care of the elderly easier and more manageable for staff from a pragmatic perspective rather than being in the best interests of their elderly patients. As Olson (2018) concludes, “The evidence is overwhelming that this does no good for the patient; it neither prolongs life nor improves the quality of life. But it is very hard to get doctors and families to trust the evidence, because it goes against the instinct not to feed the people who depend on you” (p. 650). Furthermore, following the surgical implant procedure, elderly people suffering from dementia may not fully comprehend why there is now a painful feeding tube sticking out of their side and may react violently as a result.
These gloomy, suboptimal outcomes, however, are certainly not carved in stone and researchers have been aggressively pursuing ways to maintain the quality of life for the elderly in response to the aforementioned demographic trends. Most clinicians recommend that the elderly remain physically active for as long as possible, but age-related infirmities may limit their abilities to engage in many such activities. One method that has proven efficacy in promoting and maintain the quality of life in the elderly with limited physical abilities is the practice of yoga.
While many people conjure images of strained contortionists when they think of yoga, this low-impact, cost-effective intervention can be used in a number of ways for the elderly who suffer from various physical limitations. For instance, a randomized controlled trial study by Hariprasad and Sivakumar (2013) found that, “Ageing is associated with multiple medical conditions mainly due to deteriorating physiological reserves and impaired immune mechanisms. Yoga intervention appears to improve the quality of life and sleep quality of elderly” (p. 364). Although Hariprasad and Sivakumar (2013) also stress the need for additional research in this area, they conclude that many elderly can immediately benefit from the practice of yoga individualized to their specific physical conditions.
Yet another problem that adversely affects the quality of life of the elderly is loneliness, and this condition is especially pronounced among female elderly who tend to outlive their male spouses, sometimes by many years. While the overall life expectancy for Americans today is 80.1 years, life expectancy for women is 82.3 years compared to just 77.8 years for men (United States people, 2019). Not surprisingly, then, there are also about 6.5 million more elderly women living in the United States compared to men (United States people, 2019). Besides losing a spouse, the elderly may also experience loneliness due to the loss of their social circle such as other family members, friends and close associates whose companionship and camaraderie they have enjoyed for many years. As Singh and Srivtava (2014) point out, “Loneliness may be regarded as a 'geriatric giant, leading to impaired quality of life, greater need for institutional care and increased mortality. Loneliness looms large in old age” (p. 12).
Although the elderly playing field will eventually level somewhat due to the aforementioned advances in technologies wherein more people of both genders will live to older ages, there are some steps that the elderly and those who care for them can take today to improve their quality of life. Besides community outreach programs for the elderly, a number of computer-based applications are available that allow the elderly to visually communicate with others, including family members and friends who may be geographically distant. In addition, a growing body of scholarship is being devoted to identifying opportunities to reduce the negative effects of loneliness among the elderly, including depression, anxiety, elevated blood pressure and cortisol as well as heightened responses to stress and cardiovascular diseases (Singh & Srivastava, 2014). This does not mean, of course, that loneliness among the elderly is going to be solved overnight, but these findings do underscore the fact that the problem is widely recognized and young researchers recognize that they too will join the ranks of the elderly and will need timely and effective solutions to these issues. In other words, the heat is on!
Conclusion
The research showed that there are currently around 53.5 million people aged 65 years and older living in the United States, and this demographic group is the fastest-growing in the country. The research also showed that people are going to be living far longer in the foreseeable future, with some scientists projecting life expectancies well over 100 years and even as high as 150 years Taken together, these trends are merging into a perfect storm for the elderly unless their quality of life requirements are taken into account as they grow older.


References
Glor, J. (2012, February 9). Could babies born today live to 150? CBS. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/could-babies-born-today-live-to-150/.
Hariprasad, V. & Sivakumar, P. (2013, July). Effects of yoga intervention on sleep and quality-of-life in elderly: A randomized controlled trial. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 55(7), 364-370.
Olson, L. (2018, September). Caring for the frail, demented and dying: Prolonging life at the expense of its quality can rob elderly people of peaceful, meaningful years. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 88(9), 648-652.
Singh, K. & Srivastava,S. K. (2014, January-June). Loneliness and quality of life among elderly people. Journal of Psychosocial Research. 9(1), 11-14.
United States people. (2019). CIA world factbook. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/ publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html.