Question

Kindly select all the normal age-related physiological changes and in one or two sentences explain your answer.

a. Decline in visual acuity

b. Decrease respiratory rate

c. Increased heart rate

d. Increase susceptibility to urinary tract infection (UTI)

e. Decline in long-term memory

f. Increased incidence of awakening after sleep onset

Answer 1

Normal physiological changes in ageing include

- decline in visual acuity

- increased heart rate

-increased susceptibility to urinary tract infection

-increased incidence of awakening after sleep onset

Refractive errors are common due to weakness of ocular muscles, misshapened cornea, or inability of the lens to change shape to focus images. All these can lead to decline in visual acuity.

Decrease in the number of pacemaker cells can occur with ageing.So the heart rate can either decrease or increase.It can be anywhere between 40-100/minute.There can be ectopic beats or premature beats.Conduction abnormalities can occur

Though the number of T cells is not changed with ageing, there will be more of immature T cells.Hence the immune response is weakened. This lead to increased susceptibility to infections.Added to this, there can be reduced tone of bladder wall muscles during ageing.This results in retention of urine.Since urine is a good medium for bacterial growth, increased incidence of UTI can occur.In males prostatic hypertrophy increases the risk of UTI

Sleep pattern is altered as age advance because of decrease in melatonin and growth hormone levels.Early bed time and early awakening is common.The elderly usually have more stage 1 sleep and less of stage 3 and 4.So there is less deep and restorative sleep.Sleep interruption and nocturnal awakenings are common because they can be easily aroused by environmental stimuli.Also the decreased bladder capacity necessitates frequent urination.This can also affect sleep.

Respiratory rate remains the same 12-20/minute throughout life Changes in this indicates pathology.

Decrease in the number of cortical neurons and vascular changes can cause slowed thought process and decreased ability to respond to multiple stimuli.However a pronounced decline in long term memory usually indicates some pathology.