How May Sensory Changes Affect
How May Sensory Changes Affect the Everyday Lives of Older People? Our awareness of the world occurs through physiological mechanisms that process afferent, sensory information. Like all physiological mechanisms these are subject to detrimental changes as the body ages. It is essential to understand these changes so that we can meet any extra requirements that may ensue. This is increasingly important as the proportion of the population that is elderly steadily rises. Individuals over the age of 65 now account for 16% of the population (OPCS, 1991a). This essay will identify the problems that arise for the elderly and suggest ways they can be managed. Gustation shows least age-related decrement because, unlike other neural cells, taste receptors have life spans of only a few days and are continually replaced. Salt and sucrosecan easily be identified at all ages, but more complex taste stimuli (eg. carrot) cause difficulties for old people, suggesting that olfaction, rather than gustation, might be impaired (Doty et al., 1984). Olfaction shows marked age-related decline with 25% of 65-80 year-olds, and 50% of people over 80, repo
I hope this essay has demonstrated how important, and often how simple it is, to achieve this aim. Older people are slower to process visual information, poorer at tracking moving objects, and have more difficulty extracting particular objects from a complex visual display (Kosnik et al. Mental competence may decline if the individual begins to avoid interpersonal interactions (Schaie et al. Due to the elderly driver's smaller visual field, they are less aware of cars pulling out of side streets (Jaffe et al. Environmental changes can control glare for the elderly, by shielding light sources, using several small low-intensity lights rather than one of high intensity, and using non-reflectant materials on walls, floors and ceilings (Boyce, 1981). the lips, mouth and tongue). Finally, the vestibular system degenerates leading to an unstable gait, increasing the risk of falling (Ochs et al. Fortunately, these sensory losses can be largely offset by using flavour enhancers (Schiffman & Warwick, 1989). 30% of people aged over 65 fell at least once in the preceding year (Campbell et al. Contrast should be optimized at all times, for example, by using white as opposed to grey paper, and ink instead of pencil (Cushman & Crist, 1987). Finally the elderly are more susceptible to glare, due to an increasingly opaque lens which scatters light waves as they enter the eye (Carter, 1982). There is also a greater stigma associated with wearing a hearing aid, perhaps because presbyopia begins in the thirties, whereas presbycusis does not affect the majority of people until the seventies, and so is taken as indicative of being "over the hill". Unfortunately, hearing aids are generally a less satisfactory solution to the hearing-impaired adult than spectacles are to the visually-impaired.
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