better not older

[Guest guest]

excerpt from NY times article

 

By RICK LYMAN

Published: March 10, 2006

The next few decades will see an explosion in the percentage of Americans over

the age of

65, but the economic and social impact of this baby boomer sunset may be gentler

than

had been feared because of a significant drop in the percentage of older people

with

disabilities, a new federal study has concluded.

 

 

Released yesterday, the United States Census Bureau's 243-page report on the

aging

population, among the largest and most comprehensive on the subject that the

bureau

has ever compiled, showed that today's older Americans are markedly different

from

previous generations. They are more prosperous, better educated and healthier,

and those

differences will only accelerate as the first boomers hit retirement age in

2011.

 

" Older Americans, when compared to older Americans even 20 years ago, are

showing

substantially less disability, and that benefit applies to men and to women, "

said Richard J.

Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, on whose behalf the study

was

conducted. " All of this speaks to an improved quality of life. "

 

What this suggests, Dr. Hodes said, is that while many of these older Americans

will

eventually become disabled, it will happen later with more of the years beyond

65 free of

disability ¡ª an increase in what scientists call health expectancy.

 

And while, as baby boomers age, the growing ranks of the infirm will become a

substantial

drain on government coffers and devour health care resources, the total impact

may not

be as devastating as once feared, Dr. Hodes said.

 

The study showed that the percentage of those over 65 who had a disability that

the

report described as " a substantial limitation in a major life activity " fell to

19.7 percent in

1999 from 26.2 percent in 1982. There were signs the trend would continue.

 

Richard Suzman, head of the Behavioral and Social Research Program for the

National

Institute on Aging, said there was disagreement among those analyzing the

results about

why this drop occurred. But they assumed, he said, that it was at least partly a

result of

today's older Americans' being better educated and more prosperous than previous

generations.

 

" People today have a better health expectancy than did their predecessors, " Mr.

Suzman

said. " Education, in particular, is a particularly powerful factor in both life

expectancy and

health expectancy, though truthfully, we're not quite sure why. "

 

While these results gave the federal researchers optimism, Dr. Hodes cautioned

that the

growing obesity rate in America may neutralize the positive trend.

 

The new study, " 65+ in the United States: 2005, " involved no fresh research but

was an

effort to draw together all of the relevant information on America's aging

population from

nearly a dozen federal agencies, said Charles Louis Kincannon, director of the

Census

Bureau.

 

" The report tells us that the face of America is changing, " he said.