How Aging Affects The Quality Of Life

Aging is a natural part of life, in fact we begin to age the very moment that we are born. Although aging is the process of getting older the process is more complex than just the celebration of birthdays. Gerontologists have categorized the process of aging into four categories. These categories are chronological age which is based off an individual’s age in years, biological age which refers to aging as the physical health of an individual, psychological age which refers to the physiological maturity of an individual and social age which refers to a individual’s changing roles in society as they age. Life expectancy is a commonly used measure to calculate the overall mortality rate of a given population. “Life expectancy refers to the number of years a person is expected to live based on the statistical average” (Mandal, 2014) . Quality of life includes several variables such as
Life style factors that contribute to either a short or long life expectancy are, diet, exercise, drug use, alcohol use, family health history and stress to name a few. I would personally consider changing my eating and exercise habits. Having my years in life decrease to things that I can easily improve such as eating healthy and exercising was a little scary. I have however, avoided smoking and drink very moderately which has improved the quality of my life. Diabetes runs in my family and I do not believe that I am doing enough to prevent myself from becoming a diabetic later on in life. In order to prevent myself from becoming a diabetic as stated previously I really need to change my eating habits and try to exercise regularly to accommodate my own aging. From this experience I have learned that I definitely need to take better care of myself to improve the quantity and quality of my