Designing for the Life Span Segment 4
Designing for the Life Span Segment 4 
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[D]
Aging is both gradual and episodic with respect to the onset of chronic as well as pathological conditions. The aging population progresses from childhood to an extended period of long term healthfulness that diverges as the population ages- with the highest heterogeneity at the end of the lifespan. The divergence represents both positive and negative characteristics by the upward sweeping and downward sweeping lines.
Plot of All Human Characteristics Across the Lifespan.
Birth to 15 Years 16 to 55 Years 80+Years.
The greatest divergence in characteristics occurs at the ends of the lifespan.
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Children and older adults have one thing in common: they are more dissimilar from one another than adults in the early and middle stages of development and aging. Children vary greatly from one another regarding physiological and learning development. There are differences as well between the development of girls and boys. Older adults vary in terms of the onset of normal age changes discussed in segment 003.
Today with life expectancies moving toward 80, the issue of memory loss and dementia are critical aspects of disability. Under 65, the total population experiencing early onset of dementia is 2% of the population. Over 80, it is 47% of the old-old population.
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