News - Elderly are enjoying living longer

[janet paterson <paterson@xxxxxx>]

hello cyber siblings

since i've just joined the
'over the hill'
crowd

this article caught my attention

i'll even go out on a limb
and declare that i think 'retirement' is a dumb idea
in more ways than one

i notice that this article doesn't tell us the percentage
of all people over 65 who are in nursing homes
i believe that figure is much smaller
than we would expect

as ron vetter might say
there's a lot of 'spunk' out there


janet


> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Elderly are enjoying living longer, study finds
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Copyright 1997 Nando.net
> Copyright 1997 The Associated Press
>
> WASHINGTON (Mar 17, 1997 7:55 p.m. EST) -- America's elderly are not
> only living longer but more of them are staying healthy enough to
> enjoy it. A study shows a 14.5 percent decline in the rate of older
> people who are unable to care for themselves.
>
> A national medical survey taken periodically since 1982 shows that the
> percentage of people over age 65 who are disabled has dropped from
> 24.9 percent to 21.3 percent, a difference of about 1.2 million
> people.
>
> "There is total life expectancy and then there is active life
> expectancy," said Kenneth G. Manton of Duke University. "It looks like
> both are improving at the same time."
>
> Manton is the lead author of a survey study to be published Tuesday in
> the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
>
> The National Long Term Care Surveys analyzed by the Manton team look
> at the rates of chronic disability among more than 20,000 people age
> 65 and older. Chronic disability is defined as either being in a
> nursing home or being unable to perform at least one of the activities
> of daily living, such as bathing or dressing oneself, or as being
> unable to perform at least one of the instrumental activities of daily
> living, such as washing clothes.
>
> Manton said that people are living longer and remaining active because
> medical science is learning more about treating the elderly.
>
> "We can deal with the elderly and the oldest old in new ways," said
> Manton. "There is better diagnosis and treatment of the specialized
> problems that you get in a very elderly population."
>
> Also, older people are now better educated in the ways of health and
> long life, said Manton.
>
> "They are more responsive and they are better medical consumers," said
> Manton. "They are more likely to preserve life style factors that
> improve health, such as physical activity and nutrition."
>
> Manton said that the downward trend in chronic disability has been
> noted at each step of the survey and is apt to continue into the
> future.
>
> "I think the rates will continue to decline for the next 10 to 15
> years," said Manton. "What happens with medical technology and how
> that feeds into this is speculative. But there is a lot of promising
> research that deals with the major disabling diseases, such as
> Alzheimer's and osteoporosis."
>
> Richard M. Suzman of the National Institute on Aging said the
> continued improvement in disability rates shows "this trend is no
> flash in the pan ... but is real and appears to be accelerating.
>
> "The finding gives us hope that we may be able to handle the
> revolution occurring in longevity better than we might have expected,"
> Suzman said in a statement.
>
> The study noted that if the percentage of elderly people in
> institutions in 1982 remained the same through 1994, the last year of
> the survey, there would be a total of 2.1 million in nursing homes or
> similar facilities. Instead, there are an estimated 1.7 million in
> homes, or 400,000 fewer.
>
> Assuming an annual nursing home cost per person of about $43,300 in
> 1994, the 400,000 fewer amounts to a national savings of $17.3 billion
> in nursing home costs, the study found.
>
> Such savings, said Manton, have important implications for programs
> such as Society Security and Medicare, and may encourage the building
> of more homes designed to promote the independent living of the
> elderly. Such facilities might have wide doors for people who use
> wheelchairs, and other designs to make bathing, cooking and moving
> about easier for the elderly.
>
> "There's a lot you can do to make the housing more elderly-friendly
> and friendly to people with moderate levels of disability," said
> Manton.
>
> 

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