This article advocates the importance of health promotion among the aged. Basic issues regarding health education are explored along with barriers against and arguments for increasing such activities. Ways in which the surrounding environment has changed because of the “aging” of America are described. Proposed strategies focus on promotion of health, particularly on maintenance and rehabilitation as aspects of secondary prevention.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
United States Department of Health and Human Services, Fifth Report to Council on Programs, National Institute on Aging, Administrative Document, October, 1983.
2.
VickeryD.KalmerH.LowryD.ConstantineM.WrightE., and LorenW., Effect of a Self Care Education Program on Medical Visits, Journal of the American Medical Association, 250, pp. 2952–2956, 1983.
3.
United States Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 929, Estimates of the Population of the United States by Age, Race, and Sex: 1980 to 1982, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1983.
4.
United States Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports Series P-25, No. 922, Projections of the Population of the United States: 1982 to 2050, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1982.
5.
AllanC. and BrotmanH., Chartbook on Aging in America, The 1981 White House Conference on Aging, Washington, D.C., 1981.
6.
United States Department of Health and Human Services, NCHS Vital Statistics of the United States, 1978, Vol. II, Mortality, Part A (PHS 83–1101), Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1982b.
7.
United States Department of Health and Human Services, Vital and Health Statistics No. 92, National Center for Health Statistics, September, 1983.
8.
SpitlerB. J. C., Policies Affecting Older Americans, in Aging: Prospects and Issues, DavisR. H. (ed.), The University of Southern California Press, California1981.
9.
HannaW. J., Advocacy and the Elderly, in Aging: Prospects and Issues, DavisR.H. (ed.), The University of Southern California Press, California, 1981.
10.
MaddoxG., Intervention Strategies to Enhance Well-Being in Later Life, prepared for Foundation for Health Services Research Conference, Washington, D.C., October 9–11, 1983.
11.
WilliamsT. F., The Physician's View Point, in Elderly Patients and Their Doctors, HaugM. (ed.), Springer Publishing Co., New York, 1981.
12.
CummingE. and HenryW., Growing Old: The Process of Disengagement, Basic Books, New York, 1961.
13.
StreolG. and SchneiderC., Retirement in American Society, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1971.
14.
AtchleyR., Disengagement Among Professors, Journal of Gerontology, 26, pp. 476–480, 1971.
15.
KillileaM., Crisis, Theory, Coping, Strategies and Social Support Systems, in Principles and Practices of Community Mental Health, SchulbergH. C. and KillileaM. (eds.), Jossey-Bass, Inc., San Francisco, 1983.
16.
BerkmanL. and SymeS., Social Networks, Host Resistance and Mortality, American Journal of Epidemiology, 109: 2, 1979.
17.
LeeP.FullartonJ., and FranksP., Lifetime Fitness and Exercise for Older People, A Background Paper, Aging Health Policy Center, University of California, San Francisco, June, 1982.