Nursing Services for Older Adults

Demographic Characteristics and Social Factors That Affect the Vulnerability of Older Adults With Respect to Health and WellBeing

Persons aged 65 years old or older account for approximately 12 percent of the American population (Hunter, 1993, p. 1271). The average life span in the United States has increased from an expected 70 years in the mid1960s to 78 years today. The expected life span for women is greater than that for men. Although the expected life span applies to individuals born in the year for which the statistic is determinednot for those individuals already in their elderly years, life expectancy increases have been projected for all age groupsincluding the elderly.

While the 65 years old and over group is the fastest growing segment of the overall American population, the 75 years old and over group is the fastest growing segment among those aged 65 years or older (Hunter, 1993, p. 1271). Prior to the 1970s, the 75 years old and over segment of the population was too small to merit much attention as a separate population segment. At the beginning of the 1990s, however, this segment of the population merits a great deal of special attention.

Through the 1990s, the elderly population segment will not be as large as it will at a later time (Housing for the elderly, 1987, p. 62). Although the elderly segment is the fastest growing in the American population, this phenomena is occurring solely be

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m, while the peripheral concept is a set of basic conditioning factors. Within the context of the selfcare model, person refers to the individual receiving carethe patient (Mehta, 1993, pp. 182185). The person is a human being; a unity that can be viewed as functioning biologically, symbolically, and socially. Environment is envisioned within the selfcare model in the contexts of environmental factors and elements that are considered to be external to the individual, environmental conditions comprising the set of environmental factors and elements that exist at a given time, and the developmental environment (Mehta, 1993, pp. 182185. The nurse, as a provider of care, creates a developmental environment that, for the individual receiving care, promotes personal development in relation to becoming able to meet present or future demands for action. The developmental environment, thus, consists of environmental conditions that motivate the person being helped to establish appropriate goals and adjust behavior to achieve results specified by the goals. It is the total environment, not any single part of it, that makes it developmental. In the selfcare model, health is defined as a state of the person that
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Approximate Word count = 4296
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)

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