A health crisis can occur at any phase in an individual’s life span. General health concerns, however, tend to increase with age. As a social worker, your awareness of the biological aspects of middle adulthood will inform your work with clients in this life-span phase.

In this Assignment, you address the health concerns that clients may face as they reach middle adulthood. You also address the potential impact of the environment on the health of individuals in this life-span phase.

By Day 7

Submit a 2- to 4-page paper that includes the following:

• A description of the health concerns that clients may face as they reach middle adulthood
• An analysis that explains how factors such as race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other demographic characteristics might impact at least three of the health concerns you identified
• An explanation of how you, as a social worker, should take these potential health concerns and the environmental factors that influence them into account as you complete your assessments

Support your Assignment with specific references to the resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references.

Solution:

Middle Adulthood Health, Demography, and Social Work Practice

Over the past few years, researchers have grown a considerable interest in studying the middle-age life stage. This has been particularly for the purpose of bridging the gap between young adulthood and adulthood by generating and developing new knowledge and dismissing the existing myths regarding the middle age group. According to Ford and Ford (2016), there exists a plethora of aspects that contribute to the health crisis at middle-adulthood including physical, biological, psychological, and sociological aspects. Taking this into consideration, this paper seeks to describe the health crisis at the middle-adulthood stage, impacts of factors such as race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other demographic characteristics on identified health concern, an explanation of how a social worker should take the potential health concerns and environmental factors influencing them.

Potential Health Concerns at Middle-Adulthood

The potential health concerns at middle-adulthood include cardiovascular disease (CVD), high blood pressure, diabetes, over-weight, and depression. CVD affects the blood vessels and the heart with heart disease being the most prevalent type of CVD. Men aged around 40 have three times higher risk for heart disease as compared to women at the same age (Gunderson et al, 2014). For women, the risk for CVD commences approximately 10-12 years after men. This translates to more CVD caused deaths of men at an early age than in women. However, accumulatively, approximately 50% of CVD deaths occur in women. According to Gunderson et al. (2014), an estimated 1 in 9 women at middle-adulthood (45-64 years) suffer from a type of heart disease.

Approximately 60 million or 1 in 4 adults U.S citizens are affected by hypertension which often occurs as early as 40 years of age (Ford & Ford, 2016). Hypertension affects men at a higher frequency in middle age as compared to women. However, women have a higher potential to develop hypertension at later years as compared to men.

Diabetes Type 2 is commonly discovered after 40 years of age. According to Gunderson et al. (2014), approximately 13 million U.S citizens suffer from diabetes whereby about 50% do not know. Women at affected at a higher rate than men with 60% of new diabetes 2 cases being found in women.

At middle-adulthood, one is likely to suffer psychological health concerns including depression. According to Steiger, Fend, and Allemand (2015), 1 in 20 American adults have depression, with many having subsyndromal depression. One develops less interest and pleasure in people and activities, unlike he or she did at a younger age. In addition, the individuals at middle-age suffering chronic diseases have higher depression rates.

In regards to weight, the middle-adulthood group has been observed to considerably care about their weight. Zheng et al. (2017) argue that as one gets older, he or she loses muscles, becomes less active, and it becomes difficult to prevent the weight from adding up. In addition, the body burns lesser calories as compared to a younger stage…….Please click the icon below to purchase full solution at $5