Aging Myths Test – Fact or Fiction?

True or False?

___ 1. Most people will become senile sooner or later if they live long enough.

___ 2. Intelligence declines with age...

Aging Myths Test – Fact or Fiction?

True or False?

___ 1. Most people will become senile sooner or later if they live long enough.

___ 2. Intelligence declines with age.

___ 3. Most older people have little interest in or capacity for sexual relations.

___ 4. American families, by and large, have abandoned their elderly members.

___ 5. At least 25% of all older folks live in nursing homes.

___ 6. Aged drivers have more accidents than younger drivers.

___ 7. Baby boomers are the fastest growing segment of the population.

___ 8. Only children need to be concerned about consuming enough calcium.

___ 9. More men than women survive to old age.

___ 10. Older people tend to become more religious with age.

___ 11. The majority of the aged are socially isolated and lonely.

___ 12. Personality changes with age, just like hair color and skin texture.

___ 13. All five senses decline with age.

___ 14. Extremes of head and cold can be especially dangerous for older people.

___ 15. Older adults represent the group at most risk for suicide.

___ 16. Older adults have more acute, short term illnesses than younger persons.

___ 17. The elderly naturally withdraw from participation in community life in advanced
old age.

___ 18. Hearing loss is the third most common chronic condition for the elderly.

Published by the National Institute on Aging

1. FALSE: Even among those who live to be 80 or older, only 20 to 25% develop Alzheimer’s disease or some other incurable form of brain disease. Among the overall elderly population, it is estimated that less than 10% are disoriented or demented; of these, some have conditions that are reversible through treatment. In either case, dementia or memory loss is not a normal part of aging, but typically indicates some organic condition. Further, the word “senility” is a meaningless term that should be discarded in favor of a specific description of the cognitive impairment.

2. FALSE: Intelligence per se does not decline with age. Most people maintain their intellect or improve as they grow older. While studies have shown that the elderly typically take somewhat longer to learn something new and have somewhat slower reaction times than younger people, this does not impair their ability to reason and function well.

3. FALSE: The majority of older adults continue to have both the interest and capacity for satisfying sexual relations well into their 70s, 80s and even 90s.

4. FALSE: The American family is still the number one caretaker of older Americans. Most older persons live close to their children with their spouses; 8 out of 10 older men and 6 out of 10 older women live in family settings.

5. FALSE: Only 5% of persons over 65 are living in nursing homes at any given time. Even among those 75+, only 10% are residents in nursing homes

6. FALSE: Drivers over the age of 65 have fewer accidents per person than drivers under age 65.

7. FALSE: There are more than 3 million Americans over the age of 85. That number is expected to quadruple by the year 2040, when there will be more than 12 million people in that age group. The population age 85 and older is the fastest growing age group in the US.

8. FALSE: Older people require fewer calories, but adequate intake of calcium for strong bones is important as we age. This is particularly true for women, whose risk of osteoporosis increases after menopause; men also develop osteoporosis, but in fewer numbers than women.

9. FALSE: Women tend to outlive men by an average of 8 years. There are 150 women for every 100 men over age 64 and nearly 250 women for every man over age 85.

10. FALSE: Older people do not tend to become more religious as they age. While it is true that the present generation of older persons tend to be more religious than younger generations, this appears to be a generational difference rather than a characteristic of aging. In other words, the present older generation has been more religious all of their lives rather than becoming more so in older age.

11. FALSE: The majority of the elderly are not socially isolated and lonely. According to one study, about two-thirds of the aged reported that they are never or hardly every lonely or identify loneliness as a serious problem. Most elderly have close relatives within easy visiting distance and have frequent contact. They also reported fairly high rates of socializing with friend and participation in church activities and/or voluntary organizations. This level of activity does tend to decline somewhat with advanced age and/or disability, but contact with relatives remained fairly constant or increased.

12. FALSE: Personality doesn’t change with age. Therefore, all old people cannot be described as rigid or opinionated, on those who were always rigid or opinionated.

13. TRUE: All five senses do tend to decline with age, although the extent of those changes varies greatly among individuals.

14. TRUE: The bodies thermostat tends to function less efficiently with age, making the older person’s body less able to adapt to heat or cold.

15. TRUE: Suicide is a more frequent cause of death among the elderly than among any other age group, primarily due to the high suicide rate among older men, especially older white men age 85+. People age 65 and older have a 50% higher suicide rate that the rest of the population.

16. FALSE: Older persons have fewer acute illnesses than younger persons. Older adults have more chronic illnesses than younger age groups, however.

17. FALSE: Although the “disengagement” theory was once accepted to explain the relative decrease in activity for some older adults, it has generally been discredited as a valid explanation. Most current research has explored the vast diversity among the elderly, and many new theories have been developed that better explain the variety of aging observed in this heterogeneous population.

18. TRUE: After arthritis and heart disease, hearing loss is the most common chronic disorder reported in the elderly population.