Chronic Conditions Become Much More Common as Seniors Age

Alzheimer's disease, heart disease and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are some of the chronic conditions in seniors that show a dramatic increase in prevalence as they age, according to Statistics Canada.

The incidence of Alzheimer's disease is seven times higher in the 85 years and older age group compared to those aged 65-74. Although there is a huge research effort put into discovering what actually causes Alzheimer's disease, many scientists still can only attribute age to being a risk factor in developing the disease.

A study was done to determine if a drift in the sequence of the DNA was a factor in causing Alzheimer's and they were able to conclude that this drift was observed in the entire experimental group. However, this could also be contributed to the loss of cell function that occurs in deceased individuals and cannot be directly associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease.

The Alzheimer Society of Canada outlines that there are certain environmental factors that can contribute to dementia, such as high blood pressure, smoking, cholesterol, poor diet and alcohol consumption. All that said, age is the strongest known factor for Alzheimer's disease.

Just over one in ten seniors have experienced heart disease in the 65-74-year-old age group, while incidences of heart disease double, as one in four, identify as having heart disease in the 85 years and older age group.

While age-related declines in bodily function cannot scientifically be tied to Alzheimer's disease, ageing directly changes heart health. 

The National Institute On Aging says that stiffening of the arteries in the heart is created with natural ageing properties within the body, which cannot be prevented. However, there are lifestyle choices that accelerate the ageing process, such as smoking, lack of physical activity, excessive intake of alcohol and stress.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation suggests that individuals should eat a healthy diet, including a lot of physical activity in their day, maintain a healthy weight and try to reduce stress in order to reduce their chance at ageing their cardiovascular systems.

One in every five seniors in the 85 years and older age group identified as having age-related macular degeneration, as opposed to the 65-74 as only five percent identified as having the condition. According to Dr. Ana Juricic, AMD is the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 50.

Juricic also notes that the two forms of AMD are wet AMD and dry AMD, are both a product of ageing. They affect the macula, which is a small part of the back of the eye and is responsible for detail in vision. 

Thanks to modern medicine, there are treatments available that can help stop the production of new blood vessels as a product of ageing. The treatment is given via syringe every one to two months and stops the production of these extra vessels.

AMD has only a few warning signs in the early stages that is why it is so important to get routine eye exams. In addition to this, doctors can recommend vitamin supplements to take in order to aid in preventing eye disease.

Data Update 3:

Chart:

Unanswered question:

This question is slightly morbid but yet would be useful in terms of assisting the information on the subject matter:

What percentage of the senior population passes away from heart disease in each age group?

another interesting question might be:

what percentage of senior smokers develop heart disease?

How would you get the data:

I would begin searching for this information by filing an ATI request to the Public Health Agency of Canada. I would ask for the reports of all deaths in seniors (aged 65 and older) from heart disease. I would then file a separate ATI for Statistics Canada asking for data (which may have been asked in the census) including the number of seniors with heart disease, the number of seniors who smoke and the number of seniors who both have or had smoked and identify with having heart disease. I would make sure to mention that I do not want the data in PDF format.

Had the coordinator told me said information was impossible, then I would ask nicely and then insist to speak to the person who actually deals with the data.

Data Update 2

 Lead:

The number of seniors with Alzheimer's disease is nearly 50 per cent higher in the 85 years and older age group than the 65-74 years old age group, according to Statistics Canada.

Excel workbook link and explanation:

Excel Workbook Link 

The first page of the dataset in the Excel Workbook breaks down the data into the type of chronic conditions among seniors and the total amount of seniors who have the chronic condition(s) in 2019. This information is then subcategorized by male/female and the total number of seniors for the age ranges of 65-74 and 85 years and older.

The second page labelled "slice," has the total number of seniors for each age group and a new column of my percentage change between the two age groups. The data is then sorted by the largest increase in percentage to smallest and includes only the top 11 of that sort.  In my initial update, I had received the feedback that if I simply sort the conditions and reveal the most common condition for all seniors the information would be very boring to look at on a graph. I was very confused when I first saw the percentages because they were almost all in the negatives, and I thought as seniors got older their bodies would be more susceptible to these conditions, therefore they should be increasing. However, what I did not consider was that a lot of the population is passing away between those two age groups.

Original dataset link:

Original dataset Link

News story/Study link and brief summary:

Alzheimer's  Study Link

The study I have included is titled "The Age Factor in Alzheimer's disease." The study showcases that although Alzheimer's disease has a hereditary component to the risk of developing the condition, there is still a lot of knowledge being discovered about genetic mutations that lead to the development of the disease.

 I think the information would be important to include in an article because advancements in Alzheimer's disease is a public interest to the ageing population because as they age the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease increases.  In this study, they talk about the latest advancement in late Alzheimer's disease research which is an increase in the protein eotaxin, which is attributed to the onset of a decrease in cognitive function and that more research needs to be done involving this information around genomic regions. 

 

Data Update 1

 What dataset will you use for your final report? 

The title of my dataset is "Chronic Conditions among seniors aged 65 or older, Candian Health Survey on Seniors." The data is available on Statistics Canada's website.

2. Describe the dataset. What kind of data does it contain?

The dataset looks at 26 different chronic conditions among Canadian seniors in 2019. The website has the total number of seniors who identify with having a chronic condition in a separate column. This information is also available to be categorized by province, sex and age-range. 

3. Is there anything in your data set you don't understand? How will you find this out?

A few of the conditions I had never heard of, such as age-related macular degeneration, urinary incontinence, and fibromyalgia. I can quickly look these up in a dictionary or the Canadian Health Service's website. I also originally had trouble finding the year in which this information was referring to, but with a second pair of eyes, Chad helped me see that it was written on the table in plain sight. 

4.  What are some questions you hope to answer with your data? List at least three.

• What is the most popular recorded chronic condition for males and females, males and females in Canada?
• What is the most popular recorded chronic condition among seniors who live in British Columbia?
• What is the most popular recorded chronic condition among the age group 85 years and older? 

Data Visualization Analysis: Who's Talking In popular Films?

     In an article written by Bo McCready on The Pudding, he analyzes the percent of female dialogue and IMDB ratings on films released between 1929-2015. The graphic was created to show that overall women do not have the same amount of dialogue as men do in popular films.

    

This Visualization is very overwhelming at first glance. The amount of information on the graph appears to be substantial at first glance, but yet with a further look, there tends to be a lot of repeated information. Both the bar and the circle graph represent the same data.

The size of the circle on the graph refers to the number of user votes on IMDB. This representation of the data makes it hard to visually digest as it creates a large cluster of dots on the screen without adding important information. As the circles appear similar in size, the importance of the data is being undermined. 

     A question one might ask about the data is are movies with more female dialogue rated better or worse than movies with more male dialogue? The answer is almost impossible to guess from looking at the circle graph because all of the data hovers around the same area. However, this looks completely different in the bar graph above. 

    To make the data simpler I would have suggested using the bar graph to communicate the data. I recommend this because it is easier to sort through the different films whereas in a circle graph it is taxing. I would also recommend refining the data. For example, Maybe just choosing the oscar-winning movies over the last ten years. It would have been a lot easier to answer bigger questions, such as "Which movie performed the best on IMDB" and " How Many movies have  50% or over female dialogue?"

    Another interesting way to display the data could have been a line graph. If they wanted to show the change in the amount of female dialogue over time. I think the X-axis could have been the year and the Y-axis should have been the percentage of female dialogue and I again I would suggest refining the data so that it was just the most popular movie of each year.

    The interactive function on the graph was actually very interesting to use, it showed the percentage of dialogue each main character in the movie had. If this had been available on the bar graph it would be a lot easier to sort through which movies the user had already previously clicked on versus trying to remember from a cluster of circles.