Gerontology and its related fields

Janni Obel^*
*Correspondence: Janni Obel, Department of Gerontology, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark, Email:

Received: 02-Sep-2022, Manuscript No. IJMSA-22-71222; Editor assigned: 05-Sep-2022, Pre QC No. IJMSA-22-71222 (PQ); Reviewed: 19-Sep-2022, QC No. IJMSA-22-71222; Revised: 26-Sep-2022, Manuscript No. IJMSA-22-71222 (R); Published: 05-Oct-2022

About the Study

The study of aging's social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological facets is known as gerontology. Researchers and professionals in the fields of biology, nursing, medicine, criminology, dentistry, social work, physical therapy, occupational therapy, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, economics, political science, architecture, geography, pharmacy, public health, housing, and anthropology are all considered gerontologists.

There are several sub-fields that intersect with gerontology because it is a multidisciplinary field. Consider the planning and management of nursing institutions by the government, the study of the social impacts of an ageing population, and the design of senior housing that supports the creation of a feeling of place or home as examples of policy-related concerns. The need for housing for the elderly, especially those with Alzheimer's disease, was among the first things Dr. Lawton, a behavioural psychologist at the Philadelphia Geriatric Centre, realised. The field is relatively new as a field of study.

Bio gerontology

The specialised branch of gerontology known as bio gerontology studies the biological ageing process, including its evolutionary roots and potential avenues for intervention. The goal of bio gerontology is to slow down or perhaps stop the ageing process in order to prevent age-related diseases. Some contend that because ageing meets the requirements for an illness, it is a disease and should be treated as such. For those who are born after 2100, many bio gerontologists who have been surveyed forecast life expectancies of over three centuries. More controversially, other experts contend that people who are alive today could live indefinitely. The goal of biomedical gerontology sometimes referred to as experimental gerontology and life extension, is to slow, halt, and even reverses the ageing process in both people and animals.

The degree to which bio gerontologists concentrate on understanding how to delay the onset of aging-related disorders or find ways to live longer varies. The goal of the relatively young interdisciplinary discipline is to extend a person's "health span" the amount of time they can live without developing a serious illness. The approach taken by bio gerontologists is that ageing is a disease in and of itself that needs to be treated directly with the final goal of making death risk independent of age. This goes against the notion that the maximum life expectancy cannot or should not be changed. Geriatrics, a branch of medicine that focuses on treating pre-existing diseases in the elderly rather than treating ageing itself, should not be confused with bio gerontology.

Ageing is the subject of several hypotheses, and no one hypothesis has received universal acceptance. The broad range of ageing theories can be divided into two categories at their extremes: mistake theories and programmed theories, which hold that ageing happens as a result of cumulative harm sustained by organisms.

Social gerontology

A multidisciplinary subfield with a focus on researching or working with senior citizens is social gerontology. In addition to social work, nursing, psychology, sociology, demography, public health, and other social science fields, social gerontologists may also have training in these fields. Social gerontologists are in charge of spreading awareness, conducting research, and furthering the larger causes of senior citizens. There is an overlap with demography because life span and life extension issues need numbers to be quantified. People who study the social demographics of ageing are different from those who study the demography of the human life span.