Widely reported news from UCLA suggests that boomers will enter their 60s with more disabilities than the previous generation.
Researchers looked at results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) during two different time periods--1988-1994 and 1999-2004, and studied how the levels of disability changed for people who were 60 to 69, 70 to 79, and 80-plus in four areas:
1. Activities associated with daily living: walking from room to room; getting into and out of bed
2. Performing household chores or preparing meals
3. Mobility: walking one-quarter mile; climbing 10 steps without stopping for rest
4. Functional limitations: stooping, crouching or kneeling
In all areas except #4, people in the youngest age group (60-69) showed a 40-70 percent increase in disabilities, but the older groups showed "no significant increases," according to a news release from UCLA.
While the UCLA study doesn't explain the trend toward increased disabilities among boomers, researchers suggest that it may be partly due to population increases in African Americans and Hispanics, who have higher risks for being overweight and having fewer health resources.
Study researchers are using these findings to predict the strong possibility that boomers, who are now moving into their 60s, are in for a bumpy ride. But nobody's saying you have to follow the trend.
Want to learn more about the boomers and disabilities study? A few details are available in a news release from UCLA. The full study, paid for by the National Institute on Aging, will be published in the American Journal of Public Health in January 2010.
