age structure

Examples of age structure in the following topics:

• Age Structure, Population Growth, and Economic Development

  • With knowledge of this age structure, population growth can be more accurately predicted.
  • This results in a column-shaped age structure diagram with steeper sides.
  • Countries with declining populations, such as Japan, have a bulge in the middle of their age structure diagram.
  • The leftmost diagram (representing the age structure of a rapidly-growing population) indicates that the number of individuals decreases rapidly with age.
  • Explain how age structure in a population is associated with population growth and economic development

• Age and Race

  • There is evidence that black senior citizens are more likely to be abused - both physically and psychologically and suffer greater financial exploitation than do white senior citizens.Further, recent demographic profiles suggest that social aging varies across racial groups, and demonstrates that minority elders (especially Hispanic and African American identified) typically enter later life with less education, less financial resources, and less access to health care than their white counterparts.Finally, researchers have noted that minority groups' greater likelihood of facing patterns of structural disadvantage throughout the life course, such as racial discrimination, poverty, and fewer social, political, and economic resources on average, create significant racial variations in the stages or age-related trajectories of racial minorities and majorities that may be observed at all points of the life span, and contribute to disparities in health, income, self-perceived age, mortality, and morbidity.
  • As a result, sociologists often explore the timing (in both subjective and objective conceptualizations of age) of varied life events within and between racial groups while exploring ways that age-related disparities influence the structural realities and bio-social outcomes of people located within different racial groups.

• Aging in the US

  • The geography of age in the US is quite intriguing.
  • The city of Pittsburgh offers an intriguing case study of the effects of an aging population on a city.
  • Add to this the fact that many young people are moving away from Pittsburgh to find jobs, and you have the perfect recipe for both population decline and an aging population.
  • In short, as populations in specific locations age, the entire social structure must change to accommodate the new demographic, which supports the notion of equilibrium in structural-functionalist theory.
  • This map depicts the median age of the population by county from the 2010 Census.

• Introduction

  • It encompasses the study of the size, structure and distribution of populations, and how populations change over time due to births, deaths, migration, and aging.

• The Life Course

  • The life course approach analyzes people's lives within structural, social, and cultural contexts.
  • The life course approach, also known as the life course perspective, or life course theory, refers to an approach developed in the 1960s for analyzing people's lives within structural, social, and cultural contexts.
  • In a more general reading, human life is seen as often divided into various age spans such as infancy, toddler, childhood, adolescence, young adult, prime adulthood, middle age, and old age .
  • In many countries, such as Sweden and the United States, adulthood legally begins at the age of eighteen.
  • Explain the life course perspective as it relates to a person's development from infancy to old age, in terms of structural, social and cultural contexts

• Aging and the Heart

  • As a person ages, the walls of the heart thicken, the heart becomes heavier, valves stiffen and leak, and the aorta becomes larger.
  • By the age 80, cerebral blood flow is 20% less, and renal blood flow is 50% less than at age 30.
  • As a person ages, the heart goes through certain structural changes: the walls of the heart thicken and the heart becomes heavier, heart valves stiffen and are more likely to calcify, and the aorta, the major vessel carrying blood out of the heart, becomes larger.
  • The health of the myocardium depends on its blood supply, and with age there is greater likelihood that arthrosclerosis will narrow the coronary arteries.
  • Arrhythmias are also more common with age, as the cells of the conduction pathway become less efficient.

• Aging and the Respiratory System

  • Lung elasticity declines with aging.
  • Some types of emphysema occur as a normal part of aging, and are commonly found in the elderly (85 years of age and older).
  • At about 20 years of age, humans stop developing new alveolar tissue .
  • This is a normal and natural part of aging in healthy people.
  • Together, such age-related changes in respiratory system structures can cause or contribute to the development of emphysema.

• Development of Metabolism

  • The gut or gastrointestinal tract is an endoderm-derived structure.
  • As a result, a piece of the yolk sac (the endoderm-lined structure in contact with the ventral aspect of the embryo) is then "pinched off" to become the primitive gut.
  • Usually this structure regresses during development; in cases where it does not, it is known as Meckel's diverticulum.
  • In later development each segment of the gut gives rise to specific gut and gut-related structures.
  • The blood vessels supplying these structures remain constant throughout development.

• Continuity Theory

  • The theory considers the internal structures and external structures of continuity to describe how people adapt to their circumstances and set their goals.
  • This internal structure facilitates future decision-making by providing the individual with a strong internal foundation of the past.
  • The theory is criticized primarily for its definition of normal aging.
  • The theory distinguishes between normal aging and pathological aging, so it neglects older adults who suffer from chronic illness.
  • The theory also fails to explain how social institutions impact individuals and the way they age.

• Considering the Organizational Life Cycle

  • The life cycle of an organization is important to consider when determining its overall design and structure.
  • From an organizational perspective, "life cycle" can refer to various factors such as the age of the organization itself, the maturation of a particular product or process, or the maturation of the broader industry.
  • In organizational ecology, the idea of age dependence is used to examine how an organization's risk of mortality relates to the age of that organization.
  • This requires a great deal of organized creativity and exploration of new markets, which may justify team or divisional structures within the broader organizational structure.
  • Describe the way in which life cycles influence an organization's overall design and structure