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Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 1
MODULE 2: THE CHALLENGES OF AN AGING WORKFORCE
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 2
Things that get worse with age…
• Milk
• Remembering names
• Playing basketball
• Other???
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 3
• Fine wine
• Cheese
• Bus fare
• Others??
Things that get better with age…
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 4
• Gardening
• Singing
• Driving
• Dancing
• Work???
How does age affect these…
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 5
The Physical and Mental Changes of Aging
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 6
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
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 7
Strength & Endurance
• Strength declines due to changes in muscles and connective tissue– Strength peaks at 20-30 years of age– At 55, our strength is about 80% of strength at 30– Loss in strength is greater in leg muscles than in upper
body• Endurance declines, in part, due to how our bodies
absorb oxygen– Reduced to 70% of maximum by 65 years of age
• Older workers work close to their maximum physical abilities
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 8
Vision
• Changes begin 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
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 9
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
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 10
NIHL, Sound Freq and Exposure British Columbia, 2000
0
10
20
30
40
50
500 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 6,000 8,000
Sound frequency (Hz)
Level of hearing loss (dB)
1-5 years
6-15 years
16-25 years
26+ years
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 11
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
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 12
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 make tissues stiffer and more vulnerable• Decrease in elasticity of ligaments • Deterioration of cartilage in joints from wear and tear
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 13
Learning and Memory
• Decline 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
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 14
Aging and Mental Function
Multi-Tasking
Working Memory
Names
Procedural
Memory
Meanings
of WordsPre
serv
edD
eclin
e
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 15
Health, Safety and Aging
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 16
Prevalence of Chronic Conditions
0 10 20 30 40 50
Percent of Adults 65+
Stroke
Diabetes
Any Cancer
Heart Disease
Arthritis
Hypertension
Data from National Health Interview Survey
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 17
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Incidents per 100 FTE
15-17 18-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70+ Total:
Age GroupSource: Work-Related Injury Statistics Query System (http://www2.cdc.gov/risqs/default.asp)
Occupational Injuries Treated in U.S. Hospital Emergency Departments, 1999
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 18
Nonfatal Construction Injury Rates by Age and Incident, 2006
41.6
10.3
89.1
48.5
7.1
78.1
51.9
11
53.2
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
15-34 35-54 55+
Falls Transportation Contact with ObjectSource: 2006 Current Population Survey and Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. Calculations by CPWR.
Inju
ry R
ate
per
10,
000
Wo
rker
s
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 19Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Median Days Away From Work Due to Non-Fatal Workplace Injury, 2004
0 5 10 15 20
14-15
16-19
20-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
Days Away from Work
Ag
e G
rou
p
All-Ages
Median
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 20
Work-Related Fatalities and Age
2.9
8.7
3.6
10.4
5.7
14.3
02
4
68
10
12
1416
Fatality Rate
(per 100,000 workers)
15-34 35-54 55+
Age Group
All Industries Construction
Source: 2007 Current Population Survey and Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. Calculations by CPWR.
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 21
Fatal Fall Rates and Age(per 100,000 Workers)
00.2
0.40.6
0.81
1.21.4
1.61.8
16-19 20-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Age
Rate
Worker Deaths By Falls: A Summary of Surveillance Findings and Investigative Case Reports. NIOSH, 2000.
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 22
Workers 55+
In the workforce*... 11%
89%
Fatal falls27%
73%
Fatal falls from ladders
42%
58%Worker Deaths By Falls: A Summary of Surveillance Findings and Investigative Case Reports. NIOSH, 2000.
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 23
Work-Related Deaths in Construction1992-2005
0
100
200
300
400
500
1992 1995 1998 2001 2004
Year
# of Deaths
Fall to lower level Contact with electric currentHighway accident Struck by object
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 24
Speed vs. Skill
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 25
Skills
Experience
Institutional Knowledge
Lower Injury Rates
Chronic Conditions
Decreased Strength
Higher Injury Severity, Lost Time
Balancing Strengths and Weaknesses
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 26
Rose’s Aging Challenges
Rose is aging. She has creaky knees and heart problems. She is also a very valuable resource for Yeats.
Should she keep working?
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 27
Generations at Work
Designing the Age Friendly Worksite 28
Young and Old on the Site Together
Carlos doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with his supervisors at work.
Is he just being difficult?…
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