Chapter 1: Introduction

Human Aging: Biological Perspectives · LibreTexts

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    Learning Objectives
    • Describe the present and anticipated population trends for the elderly and explain the reasons for these trends. (No specific values are needed.)
    • Discuss the significance of population trends of elders.
    • Define or describe the terms developmental change, age change, aging, senescence, biological aging.
    • Describe homeostasis and explain how it is important to the body.
    • Describe how homeostasis is maintained, including how negative feedback systems function.
    • Describe the overall effects of most age changes on maintaining homeostasis and explain why these effects occur.
    • Describe the six types of aging (biological, chronological, cosmetic, social, psychological, and economic), and describe interactions among them.
    • Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using chronological age and cosmetic aging as indicators or predictors of peoples' status and of the other types of aging.
    • Describe the distinctions between aging and disease, and explain why many abnormal and disease conditions accompany aging.
    • Explain how abnormal and disease changes can be reduced and why doing so is important.
    • Name five main risk factors that promote abnormal and disease conditions that often accompany aging.
    • Briefly describe cross-sectional and longitudinal methods of studying aging and list three advantages and three disadvantages of each.
    • Briefly describe the time lag method of studying aging and list advantages and disadvantages.
    • Briefly describe advantages and disadvantages of using non-human and cell studies to learn about human aging.
    • Describe general patterns of biological aging (age of onset, trends over time, age of appearance, types of variability).
    • Describe heterogeneity as age increases and explain its significance.
    • Describe the meaning, usefulness and difficulty in determining a person's "biological age".
    • Describe maximum longevity, mean longevity, and life expectancy, and describe past, current, and future trends in these parameters.
    • Name two non-modifiable and four modifiable factors that influence mean longevity and explain their relationships to quality of life.
    • Explain concepts of quality of life and their importance.

    This page titled Chapter 1: Introduction was last modified on Thu, 19 Oct 2023 19:12:04 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Augustine G. DiGiovanna via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.