APPENDIX
Glossary of Terms
Activities of Daily Living( ADL): Functions that are typically performed as part of a person’ s daily routine, such as dressing, bathing, eating, toileting, leisure activities, socialization, transferring, walking, and other functions of daily living. They are descriptions of physical functions that are useful tools when planning helping services for older people.
Acute: Referring to symptoms of abrupt onset, often of marked severity or intensity.
Adult Day Care Centers: Adult day healthcare centers are a program of services provided under health leadership in an ambulatory care setting for adults who do not require 24-hour institutional care. They offer supervised social and educational activities, including exercise, special events, nutrition, music, art, guest speakers, and family counseling.
Akinetic: Referring to absence of or poverty of voluntary movement; loss of the ability to move all or part of the body.
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Alzheimer’ s Disease: A progressive degenerative disease of the brain of unknown cause. Alzheimer’ s disease is characterized by widespread loss of nerve cells, particularly in the outer region of the brain( cerebral cortex), with distinctive neurodegenerative changes( including“ plaques” and“ neurofibrillary tangles”) and reduced activity of certain neurotransmitters of the brain. The disease is the most common cause of dementia or progressive deterioration of thought processing and acquired intellectual abilities. Associated symptoms include initial forgetfulness with increasingly severe memory impairment; disorientation and confusion; loss of the ability to recognize familiar people or objects through sensory stimuli( agnosia); and speech disturbances. The disorder may also be characterized by restlessness and agitation; an increasingly impaired ability to conduct purposeful movements; personality disintegration; and symptoms of psychosis, such as the perception of sights, sounds, or other sensations in the absence of external stimuli( hallucinations) and false beliefs of persecution despite evidence to the contrary( paranoid delusions).
Ambulant( Ambulatory): Able to walk; may be used to describe patients who do not require a wheelchair or are not confined to bed.
Ambulation: The act of walking.
Antibodies: Specialized proteins that function as an essential part of the immune system. Antibodies are produced by certain white blood cells( B cells) in response to the presence of specific, usually foreign proteins( i. e., antigens), helping the body to neutralize and destroy the invading microorganism, foreign tissue cell, or other antigen in question.
Antioxidants: Agents that inhibit or neutralize potentially harmful compounds known as free radicals. Free radicals are produced during metabolic activity. High levels of free radicals may eventually lead to impaired functioning and destruction of neurons and other cells in the body. Certain antioxidants are thought to neutralize free radicals before cellular damage occurs.
Apraxia: Loss of the ability to sequence, coordinate, and execute certain purposeful movements and gestures in the absence of motor weakness, paralysis, or sensory impairments. Apraxia is thought to result from damage to the cerebral cortex, such as due to stroke, brain tumors, head injury, infection, or neurodegenerative disease. It may also occur as a result of impaired development of the cortex as in certain neurodevelopmental disorders, including Rett syndrome. Apraxia may affect almost any voluntary movements, including those required for proper eye gaze, walking, speaking, or writing.