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Part 2 Key Terms
Part 2 Key Terms - Working with Older Adults
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Aerobic activity | Any activity that uses large muscle groups, can be maintained continuously, and is rhythmic in nature. Examples include running, bicycling, and skiing. |
| Aerobic capacity | A measure of physical fitness, it reflects the ability of the heart and lungs to get oxygen to the muscles during exercise. |
| Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) | Degeneration of the macula, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. The leading cause of vision loss in Americans 60 years of age or older. |
| Agnosia | Inability to recognize familiar objects in the absence of sensory deficits. |
| Alzheimer’s disease (AD) | The most common type of dementia. AD is a progressive, gradual disorder in which the brain undergoes specific changes. It is believed that AD develops because of multiple underlying factors rather than a single cause. |
| Anxiety disorders | Class of psychiatric disorders characterized by a state of tension, apprehension, and fear without a real threat or danger. Symptoms interfere with daily functioning. |
| Aphasia | Partial or total loss of the ability to speak or understand speech due to a disorder in the brain’s cerebellum. |
| Apraxia | Difficulty with physical movement despite otherwise normal physical functioning. Change in gait (walking) is one common example. |
| Basal metabolic rate | The rate at which energy is used by an organism at complete rest. It determines maintenance caloric needs at rest. |
| Bereavement | The period following the loss of a loved one. Not a mental illness. |
| Biomarkers | Biological markers assess biological age and predict future health. |
| Bipolar disorder | Formerly known as manic-depressive disorder. A psychiatric illness characterized by both manic and depressive episodes. |
| Blood alcohol content | The concentration of alcohol in the blood, which is used as an indicator of intoxication. |
| Body mass index (BMI) | Estimates the ideal weight of a person based on size and weight. Calculated as the individual’s body mass (kg) divided by the square of their height (meters). |
| Cellular senescence | The phenomenon, often called the Hayflick limit, that causes cells to stop dividing after about 40 to 60 divisions. |
| Centenarians | Persons age 100 or older. |
| Chronic Disease Self-Management Program | A low-cost program of Stanford University that helps individuals with chronic conditions learn how to manage and improve their own health, while reducing health care costs. |
| Chronic illness | A disease of long duration and generally slow progression. Examples are hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. |
| Cognitive behavioral therapy | A short-term psychotherapeutic treatment that focuses on changing a) and behaviors that are associated with mental health symptoms. |
| Cognitive capacity | The brain's ability to maintain mental functioning and adapt to normal age-related changes in cognition. |
| Cognitive function | The brain’s ability to execute various processes such as thinking, reasoning, remembering, and decision making. |
| Cognitive reserve | The brain’s ability to be resilient in the face of attack. |
| Creativity | The ability and openness to look at things in a different way. |
| Cross-sectional studies | Data that offer a snapshot of a population at one point in time. |
| Crystallized intelligence | Intelligence that continues to increase and improve throughout the life span. This type of intelligence involves knowledge that comes from prior learning and experiences and includes reading comprehension and vocabulary. |
| Damage or error theories | A theory that implies that aging is due to random damage of the aging body and its systems, not programming. |
| Delirium | Classified as a neurocognitive disorder; characterized by a significant change in mental functioning, particularly a disturbance in attention and awareness that develops over a short time and fluctuates throughout the day. |
| Delusions | False beliefs that persist in spite of evidence that the beliefs are untrue. |
| Dementia | A general term for declines in mental ability that are severe enough to affect everyday living. This is a broad term that describes a range of symptoms, rather than being a specific disease. |
| Depression | A type of psychiatric illness characterized by sad, empty, or irritable mood accompanied by physical and cognitive changes that significantly impact an individual’s ability to function. |
| Diabetes (type 2) | Most common type of diabetes in which there are high levels of glucose (i.e., sugar) in the blood because either the body does not produce enough insulin, or the cells ignore the insulin. |
| DSM or DSM-5-TR | Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The official listing and definition of psychiatric disorders by the American Psychiatric Association, most recently updated in 2022. |
| Episodic memory | Stores personal experiences related to a particular place or time. Deficits in episodic memory with aging may stem from problems with encoding, storing, or retrieving the information. |
| Executive function | Ability to plan and carry out tasks. |
| Floaters | Small, dark shapes resembling spots, threads, or squiggly lines that seem to dart around like small flies when the eyes move. Floaters are a common complaint of older adults. |
| Fluid intelligence | The ability to perceive relationships, think and reason abstractly, and problem-solve; peaks in adolescence and then begins to progressively decline beginning around 30 to 40 years of age. |
| Food safety | Conditions and practices that preserve the quality of food to prevent contamination and foodborne illnesses. |
| Frontotemporal dementia | Pick’s disease. Precipitated by cell damage that causes tissue shrinkage and reduced function in the brain’s frontal and temporal lobes, which control planning and judgment, emotions, speaking and understanding speech, and certain types of movement. |
| Generalized anxiety disorder | A type of anxiety disorder in which an individual has excessive worry and anxiety that they cannot control. The person may feel restless or on edge or easily fatigued or have difficulty concentrating because the mind goes blank. |
| Grief | Emotional response to a significant loss. |
| Hallucinations | Seeing or hearing things that are not there and difficulty differentiating dreams from reality. Hallucinations can occur in any of the five senses. |
| Healthy aging | Development and maintenance of optimal physical, mental, and social well-being and function in older adults. |
| Hormones | Chemical messengers in the body that move throughout the bloodstream and attach themselves to and unlock receptors located on the cells in order to carry out their particular action. |
| Hypertension | High blood pressure. A reading that is greater than 140 over 90 is considered high. |
| Irreversible dementias | Dementias that worsen as the disease progresses. |
| Lean body mass | The weight of a person’s body that isn’t fat. It includes muscle, bone, and other nonfat tissue. |
| Lewy body dementia (LBD) | Associated with abnormal clumps of alpha-synuclein protein (Lewy bodies) in the brain. Less well-understood than other forms of dementia. It's associated with a combo of symptoms of Alzheimer's & Parkinsons diseases. |
| Life expectancy | The average length of time one can expect to live. |
| Life span | The maximum length of life biologically possible for a species, assuming an event such as disease or accident doesn’t occur. |
| Longitudinal studies | Involve repeated observations of the same variables over long periods of time, which allows change to be measured in the same individual. |
| Long-term memory | Pertains to information that has been archived because ready access to it is no longer necessary. |
| Major depressive disorder | A psychiatric illness in which depressive symptoms are present for most of each day for a minimum of two weeks. |
| Malnutrition | A condition that develops when the body does not get the right amount of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients it needs to stay healthy. |
| Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) | A clinical diagnosis in which there is a slight, noticeable, and measurable decline in cognitive functioning that is not severe enough to interfere with everyday independent functioning. |
| Neurocognitive disorder | A general term for declines in mental ability that are severe enough to affect everyday living. This is a broad term that describes a range of symptoms, rather than being a specific disease. |
| Neuroplasticity | The brain’s ability to change and adapt in response to environmental demands. |
| Nutritional supplements | Vitamins, minerals, herbs, meal supplements, sports nutrition products, and related products that are not considered foods and are taken to boost the nutritional content of the diet. |
| Obesity | A medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health. A person with a BMI ≥ 30 is considered obese. |
| Obsessive-compulsive disorder | A psychiatric illness characterized by upsetting thoughts that cannot be controlled followed by ritualistic behaviors. |
| Obstructive sleep apnea | A sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops during sleep for more than 10 seconds and restarts. |
| Osteoporosis | A disease marked by reduced bone strength leading to an increased risk of fractures or broken bones. |
| Overweight | Having more body fat than is optimally healthy. A person with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. |
| Panic disorder | Repeated episodes of intense fear or discomfort that come on unexpectedly. |
| Parkinson’s disease | Associated with the brain’s loss of a chemical called dopamine, causing movement problems early in the disease. |
| Perception | How one organizes, identifies, and interprets sensory information to understand one’s environment. |
| Persistent depressive disorder | A psychiatric illness that is a chronic form of depression; symptoms must be present for a minimum of two years. |
| Personality disorders | A group of 10 psychiatric disorders characterized by behaviors that are pervasive and inflexible, which dominate and create problems in interpersonal relationships. |
| Physical activity | Body movement that uses energy. |
| Pneumococcal disease | A preventable bacterial infection that often causes pneumonia in older adults and can be fatal. |
| Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | A psychiatric illness that can develop after someone experiences or witnesses a traumatic event. Symptoms can manifest a month or more after the event. |
| Preclinical Alzheimer’s disease | Individuals in this stage of AD have measurable changes in the brain, cerebrospinal fluid, and/or biomarkers but do not yet have symptoms. |
| Processing speed | The rate at which information is processed from the time information reaches the senses to when it is understood. |
| Programmed theories of aging | Theories that assert human beings are predestined to age and our bodies follow a biological timeline that is influenced by factors that define puberty, maturity, and development. |
| Proprioception | The innate ability to sense the relative position of one’s limbs without having to look. |
| Pseudodementia | Psychiatric symptoms that resemble dementia but are due to a depressive episode. |
| Qigong | A Chinese system of physical exercises and breathing control; related to tai chi. |
| Resilience | The ability to actively recover from and adapt to major life changes. |
| Restless legs syndrome | A disorder that is worse at night and causes a strong urge to move one’s legs due to strange and unpleasant feelings. |
| Reversible neurocognitive disorders | Conditions that impact memory and thinking that improve when treated. |
| Senescence | The biological process of aging and the accumulative molecular and cellular changes that occur with the passage of time and lead to deterioration and eventually death. |
| Senior Nutrition Program | A federally funded nutrition program targeted to adults age 60 and over with the greatest economic or social need. It provides congregate and home-delivered meals, nutrition education and counseling, and other supportive and health-related services. |
| Shingles | An infection caused by the varicella-zoster virus that causes a painful rash. It can occur anywhere on the body but most often appears as a single stripe of blisters that wraps around either the left or right side of the torso. |
| Short-term memory | Also called primary memory. The memory that the brain retains for a short time; affected minimally or not at all with aging. |
| Social anxiety disorder | Characterized by feeling anxious or overwhelmingly self-conscious in daily situations. Associated with intense, persistent, and chronic fear of being judged by others or fear of embarrassment when engaged in an activity. |
| Social connectedness | Involvement in meaningful activities that foster a sense of belonging and intimacy in relationships; it is a vital component of healthy aging. |
| Specific phobia | An anxiety disorder subtype. Individual has a marked fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation. |
| Strength training | An approach to improving muscle strength by using resistance or weights to work a muscle group. |
| Sundowning | A state of confusion that occurs at the end of the day and into the night, generally for those suffering from the middle to later stages of Alzheimer's disease. |
| Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) | Formerly known as the Food Stamp Program. Food subsidy program for low-income households. |
| Tai chi | A Chinese exercise system that uses slow, smooth body movements to achieve a state of relaxation of both body and mind. |
| Vascular cognitive impairment | Caused by small strokes that decrease blood flow to the brain. Vascular brain changes have also been linked to Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. |
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