Dementia
Introduction
Dementia is a chronic syndrome where people deteriorate in cognitive function beyond the expected in normal aging. The illness interferes with memory, comprehension, thinking, orientation, language, judgment, and learning capacity. The ailment occurs when diseases damage the brain. Such diseases include Alzheimer’s or stroke. People with such sickness experience difficulties in emotional control, motivation, or social behavior. Dementia causes disability as well as dependency among the elderly in the globe. There are little understanding and awareness of the ailment, which results in diagnostic barriers and stigmatization. Dementia is also referred to as a group of symptoms affecting the tasks undertaken by mental cognitive. When Dementia prolongs, it can affect the capabilities of functioning independently. It is the primary cause of disability among older adults hence financial and emotional burden upon families. As the ailment continues, the patients become confused and more forgetful as they grow. They experience hardship in recalling faces and names; in this time, personal care is a problem. Dementia mostly affects people who are older than 65 years of age; in most cases, on in every 14 people over 65 years have Dementia. Therefore, the chances of having Dementia at this age are high. However, it does not mean that people under 65 cannot get Dementia because it has been found that even young people get sick. This paper will discuss Dementia. The paper will provide a description of the health issue and the affected population. It will also cover factors contributing to the health issues and reason for the cause. I would also provide a theory that explains the behavior associated with Dementia.
The incidence of Dementia exponentially increases with age between 65-90 years, and it has been proved to be doubling every five years. The relationship between Dementia and the elderly is that when people ages, their brain nerve cells die. However, Alzheimer’s is the most cause of the disease, although age is the most significant factor for the ailment. Dementia is not a sickness by itself, but various conditions cause it. Elder people are associated with health issues; in that case they find it hard to remember things as they memory gets smaller. At old age signs of memory loss are normally but it can be a nuisance and frustrating at times. Studies continue to prove whether the doubling rate continues at old age ages or whether the pattern in elder women and men is the same or not known. The number of people with Dementia aged 90 years and above was approximately 2000 a decade ago. The number of the infect people continued to rise then hence the making the sickness among older people the faster growing in America. The number of older adults with Dementia is expected to increase to 35 million to 70 million by 2030. This means as the growth of elderly increases so as the importance of treatment and prevention. Such high rates of increase of dementia cases in the future are critical for proper planning of treatment and medical costs in the future. 47.5 million older adults with Dementia are perceived that 58 percent of such people live within middle and low-income countries. Similar to the United States, the number is anticipated to rise continually. Recent studies have how the prevalence of Dementia is between 5-7 percent among the people aged 60 and above. Since Dementia mostly affect people with 65 or more years, countries that people are rapidly ageing will experience prevalence of more than twice the number for the next 20 years. Regardless of extensive cases of Dementia, only eight countries across the globe have national programs to address the situation. Developing countries have a low number of Dementia, and the only explanation is that that older people in those countries have experienced harsh conditions which give them a health advantage. That health advantage protects them from Dementia.
Dementia implies a condition involving deterioration of mental ability affection normal.
Function. Dementia is associated with memory loss, difficulty in communication and thinking, problems with motor function, and coordination. Various factors can trigger Dementia, including smoking and genetics involvement. It is critical to know that risk factors are not the cause of Dementia. Diabetes is perceived as a diabetes risk factor for Alzheimer but it does not imply that it causes Dementia. This means that not all people with diabetes develop Dementia. Atherosclerosis is another contributing factor for Dementia. Atherosclerosis is triggered by hardening and thickening of artery walls because of plaque buildup. Other contributing factors include high levels of cholesterol a Homocysteine, mild cognitive impairment and psychological factors.
Moreover, the risk of developing Alzheimer’s includes vascular Dementia as well as genetic causes. Dementia describes symptoms occurring due to decline in brain function. Various diseases are associated with abnormal deposits of protein in the brain causing the destruction of nerve cells where different part of the brain shrinks. Alzheimer’s is the common type of Dementia. Moreover when litter blood reaches the brain is causes a condition of vascular Dementia. Lewly bodies referred to as clumps of proteins referred to as alpha-syncline; they damage the functions of protein. Education is among the social factors risk factor associated with Dementia. Educational level determines occupational attainment which is directly associated with income which is connected to level of mental distress. People with high academic levels are associated with high mental activities or distress which contributes to Dementia. Behavioral factors such as smoking and alcoholism is associated with increased levels of Dementia. Moreover, psychological factors associated with old age such cognitive impairment exposes people with high risk of diagnosed with Dementia. Race plays a certain role for the prevalence of Dementia; this is associated with increased disparities among ethnic groups. Hispanic and blacks have worse cardiovascular health as well as lower education levels as compared to the whites. This explains why there are disparities in Dementia across ethnic and racial groups. This explains why there is high level of Dementia in blacks than whites.
Theories of aging best explain the behaviors associated with Dementia. The theories explain activities associated with old age. On theory cannot explain the behavior in Dementia. Stochastic theory for instance is related to loss of mental functions during ageing because of the accumulation of aleatory lesions. Somatic mutation theory explains that sublethal lowers in the course of life and when the levels are down the level of getting sickness upon an individual is high. Moreover, error-catastrophe theory explains that during old age error is dissemination of protein occurs. When protein is not well distributed across the body, one has high chances of getting diseases because their body creates lethal protein which affect the replication of DNA hence increased chances of somatic mutations. The combination of the theories explains how the behaviors associated with Dementia are developed. The theory explains in the course of a lifetime normal body function deteriorates resulting to several complications. Such complications are resulted to memory loss, confusion, behavioral changes, reduced concentration and depression.
To achieve healthy equity related to Dementia includes advocating for social, political and economic programs that will elevate the health for the communities that are more vulnerable. Such programs would help to support the most vulnerable communities. Such policies would support the advancement of health among the multicultural populations. Moreover the most vulnerable population should be educated about their legal obligations and rights to uphold the disability and civil rights. Moreover, disability and civil right should be enforced. Local, state and federal government should adopt health in every policy approach to assure health issues are broadly addressed. There should equitable, effective, and respectful healthcare responding to different cultural health practices and beliefs. Health organizations should identify people’s cultural beliefs, attitudes, values and health practices to influence positive health outcomes. The development of national policy should be effect to deal with disparities of Dementia. The policy would create a platform and way of increasing awareness of Dementia among health professionals and general population. The policies should be such that full range of risk factors is covered. Health policies would be critical in dealing with health disparities among the population. the evaluation of the policies would be critical to understand the effect of the outcomes upon pupulations. Additionally available health policies in should be put into practice.
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