Adulthood

Essay by dirtydog64 October 2008

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Middle adulthood is a stage of life where aging will begin to show. Aging will cause deterioration in aspects of a person health in a multitude of ways. There are multiple methods of measuring an individual’s health. These include, but not limited to, mortality, morbidity, disability, and vitality. (Berger, 498).

Mortality is a measure of health that refers to the number of deaths each year per 1000 people of a given population. These numbers are recorded from legal death certificates which also contain age, sex, and cause of death. (Berger, 498). The average number of 17.2 deaths per 1000 in 1900 has improved to 8.2 per 1000 people in 2005. (Infoplease, 2008). This decline in mortality rates shows an increase of people’s good health over the last century.

Morbidity is a measure of health that refers to the rate of diseases of all kinds in a population. These statistics will demonstrate the amount of disease that is present in a given population.

This is beneficial because not all diseases will cause death, therefore they will not show up in the mortality rate. The production of this information will reveal how disease stricken a given population can be. (Berger, 498).

Disability, as a measure of health, refers to portion of a population that cannot perform normal activities that other people can. (Berger, 498). Disabilities can come in a multitude of forms. It can be a physical disability such as not being able to walk, or a psychological disability like anxiety. Disability is very costly to society because when a person cannot actively participate in daily activities, society loses an active contributor and may also have to provide special care to that person. (Berger, 499).

Lastly, vitality is “a measure of health that refers to how healthy and energetic- physically, intellectually, and...