|
E-mail this page to a friend!
News for Baby Boomers
Baby Boomers Report Worse Health, More Pain, Less
Physical Ability Than Did Senior Citizens at Same Age
 Dramatic decline in disability among people 65 and
older
March 5, 2007 - Americans in their early to mid-50s
today report poorer health, more pain and more trouble doing everyday
physical tasks than their older peers reported at the same age in years
past, a recent analysis has shown.
Using a summary health index developed for their
analysis, the researchers compared the overall, self-reported health of
people in three birth-year groups — those born in -
● 1936-41 (now ages 66 to 71),
● 1942-47 (now ages 60 to 65) and
● 1948-53 (now ages 54 to 59).
| |
Related Stories |
|
| |
Baby Boomer Alert - the ’60s Are Coming but This
Time, It’s Age, Warns Heart Expert
No way to turn back clock
but boomers can reduce their risk
November 15, 2006 - For baby boomers the ’60s are
coming but this time, it’s chronological age, not the “swinging” ’60s.
For the next 20 years, the U.S. healthcare system could experience a
tsunami of heart care demand as millions of boomers turn 60, and their
risk of heart attack increases, warns a Loyola University Health System
heart expert. He offers some suggestions on what boomers should do.
Read more...
Being a Baby Boomer is a Pain, Researcher Says
Welcome to 'Golden Years' of chronic pain -
seniors live with it
by Nancy Chan
May 30, 2006 - A great deal of attention is being paid this year
to Americans who are turning 60, the first of the baby boomers born
between 1946 and 1964. Baby boomers already appear to be setting
themselves apart from their parents and grandparents with more active
and productive lifestyles in what formerly were termed “the golden
years.” Read more...
Boomers Much More Likely Than Seniors to Seek Help for Headaches
March 16, 2006 – Senior citizens may be surprised to
learn that they are the age group (age 65 and older) least likely to seek
medical help from headaches. It's those Baby Boomers age 45 to 64 who are
the most likely to get medical care and medicines prescribed for headaches.
Read more...
Read more
Baby Boomer News |
|
The data came from the Health and Retirement Study
(HRS), a nationwide, NIA-sponsored survey of more than 20,000 Americans
over age 50 that began in 1992. It draws from survey respondents’
answers to questions about their health and well-being when they were
all between the ages of 51 and 56. The researchers’ health index blended
HRS participants’ ratings of their health, difficulty with physical
mobility and agility, and perception of physical pain.
The study showed:
● The two younger groups were less likely than
the oldest group to have said their health was “excellent or very good”
at 51 to 56 years of age.
● The youngest group reported having more pain,
chronic health conditions, and drinking and psychiatric problems than
people who were the same age 12 years earlier.
● Compared with the oldest group, the youngest
group was more likely to have reported difficulty in walking, climbing
steps, getting up from a chair, kneeling or crouching, and doing other
normal daily physical tasks.
This new analysis provides some initial data
raising the question of whether today’s pre-retirees could reach
retirement age in worse shape than their predecessors, with individuals
potentially in poorer health than current retirees and possibly
increasing health care costs for society.
In the past two decades, there has been a dramatic
decline in disability among people 65 and older.
One recent report of this trend, for example, found
that the prevalence of chronic disability among people 65 and older fell
from 26.5 percent in 1982 to 19 percent in 2004/2005 (see “Disability
Among Older Americans Continues Significant Decline”
click here).
Researchers and policymakers are vitally interested
in whether this trend will continue, accelerate or decelerate with the
retirement of the baby boom, a critically important question in planning
for health, housing and other needs of this wave of retirees, who begin
to turn 65 in 2011.
The research, published in print and online this
week by the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), was
supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a component of the
National Institutes of Health.
The study was conducted by Beth J. Soldo, Ph.D.,
Olivia Mitchell, Ph.D., and John McCabe, Ph.D., of the University of
Pennsylvania, and Rania Tfaily, Ph.D., of Carleton University, Ottawa,
Ontario. The newly published report appears as part of NBER’s Working
Paper series and follows the analysis’ online appearance in 2006. It
will also be published in a refereed volume from Oxford University Press
in 2007.
The NBER report follows earlier analyses, including
an NIA-supported study suggesting that the obesity epidemic, which is
driving higher rates of diabetes, heart disease and hypertension, could
threaten the disability decline as well. It will be important to develop
and understand new data about pre-retirees to see which direction the
boomer cohort will take, says Richard Suzman, Ph.D., director of the
NIA’s Behavioral and Social Research Program.
Editor's Notes
The NIA leads the federal effort supporting and
conducting research on aging and the medical, social and behavioral
issues of older people. For more information on research and aging, go
to
www.nia.nih.gov. Publications on research and on a variety of topics
of interest on health and aging can be viewed and ordered by visiting
the NIA website or can be ordered by calling toll-free 1-800-222-2225.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The
Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers
and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic,
clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the
causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For
more information about NIH and its programs, visit
www.nih.gov.
References: Soldo, B.J. et al. Cross-Cohort
Differences in Health on the Verge of Retirement. National Bureau of
Economic Research Working Paper 12762. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of
Economic Research (2007). Available online at:
http://www.nber.org/.
> Manton, K.G., et al. Change in chronic
disability from 1982 to 2004/2005 as measured by long-term changes in
function and health in the U.S. elderly population. PNAS (2006),
103(48):18374-9.
> Lakdawalla, D.N. et al. Are the young becoming
more disabled? Health Affairs (2004), 23(1):168-76.
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
