Designing the Age Friendly Workplace

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MODULE 2 THE CHALLENGES OF AN AGING WORKFORCE
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Getting Better And Getting Worse With Age
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Things that get worse with age

• Milk
• Remembering names
• Playing basketball
• Other???

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Things that get better with age

• Fine wine
• Cheese
• Bus fare
• Others??

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How does age affect these?

• Gardening
• Singing
• Driving
• Dancing
• Work???

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How Our Bodies Change With Age

• Strength
• Endurance
• Vision
• Light sensitivity
• Hearing
• Temperature sensitivity
• Balance
• Reaction time

• Flexibility
• Joint range of motion (e.g. reach)
• Manual dexterity
• Chronic conditions (e.g. arthritis)
• Healing time
• Learning and memory
• Sleep disorders

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Strength Endurance

• Strength declines due to changes in skeletal
  muscles and connective tissue
• Strength peaks at 20-30 years of age
• At 50 55, strength is about 80 of strength at
  age 30
• Loss in strength is greater in leg muscles
• Endurance declines, in part, due to how bodies
  absorb oxygen
• Reduced to 70 of maximum by 65 years
• Older workers work closer to their maximum
  abilities than younger workers

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Vision

• Changes start near 40 due to changes in our eyes
  lenses and the muscles that focus them
• Near-sightedness or far-sightedness
• Restricted depth perception
• Restricted field of vision
• Slowed adaptation to changes in light
• Increased sensitivity to bright lights and glare
• Decreased sensitivity to contrast

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Hearing

• Age-related hearing loss begins around 40 and
  increases sharply around 60
• Characteristics of age-related hearing loss
• Ability to distinguish high-pitched sounds (e.g.
  doorbell) declines before ability to distinguish
  lower frequencies
• Understanding conversations can become a
  challenge
• Background noise makes hearing harder (e.g.
  factory)
• Noise-induced hearing loss can make age-related
  hearing loss worse than it would otherwise be

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Balance Reaction Time

• Increase in reaction time with age
• 40-year old requires 25 more time than 20-year
  old
• 60-year old requires 150 more time
• Balance declines with age
• Changes in vision and peripheral sensation
• Postural steadiness declines
• Increased risk of trips, slips and falls

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Flexibility and Joint Range of Motion

• Increase in response time for muscles to relax
• Decrease in number and size of muscle fibers
• Decrease in water content in tendons makes
  tissues stiffer and more vulnerable
• Decrease in elasticity of ligaments
• Deterioration of cartilage in joints from wear
  and tear

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Learning and Memory

• Declines in short term memory, reasoning
  processing speed
• Continued increase in long term memory,
  quantitative knowledge, depth breadth of
  knowledge
• No change in ability to learn new tasks
• Increase in time effort necessary to encode
  information but future retrieval same as for
  younger person

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Aging and Mental Function
Multi-Tasking Working Memory Names
Decline
Procedural Memory Meanings of Words
Preserved
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Health, Safety and Aging
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Chronic Conditions Increase with Age
Data from National Health Interview Survey
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Occupational Injuries Treated in U.S. Hospital
Emergency Departments, 1999
Source Work-Related Injury Statistics Query
System (http//www2.cdc.gov/risqs/default.asp)
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Median Days Away From Work Due to Non-Fatal
Workplace Injury, 2004
Age Group
Days Away from Work
Source U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
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Workplace Fatalities and Age
Source NIOSH Worker Health Chartbook, 2004, p 264
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Speed vs. Skill
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Balancing Strengths and Weaknesses
Skills Experience Institutional Knowledge Lower
Injury Rates
Chronic Conditions Decreased Strength Higher
Injury Severity, Lost Time
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Questions

• Is Ralph experiencing the normal physical and
  cognitive changes of a 57 year old?
• Has Ralph misjudged his ability to keep working?
  Should he just retire at 62?
• What are some common concerns Ralph and Joyce
  have when it comes to aging?

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Generations at Work
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Questions

• How might Ralph and Joyce be different in their
  attitudes and expectations?
• How can Ralph and Joyce find common ground?