YAY!? Growing older may be getting easier

[babylonsister]

Growing older may be getting easier
By Frank Greve | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007


WASHINGTON — The remarkable thing about National Public Radio senior news analyst Daniel Schorr, 91, who only recently gave up tennis, and Landrum Bolling, 94, the globe-trotting director at large for the relief agency Mercy Corps, is the same: They aren't as remarkable as you'd think they are.

A surprising decline in disability rates among older Americans since the 1980s is enabling millions more to lead longer, richer, spryer lives. The oldest old, such as Schorr and Bolling, are the biggest beneficiaries, but the entire 65-plus population has the best odds ever of living disability-free.

"This is a very important positive outcome," said Dr. Richard Suzman, the director of the behavioral and social research program at the National Institute on Aging, the lead federal agency on the health and well-being of older Americans.

Suzman cautioned that the drop in disabilities, which has averaged about 1.5 percent a year since 1984, might not continue. But if it does, he said, "It's like the reverse of compound interest. You could end up with a flat number — not a flat percentage — of disabled elderly between 1990 and 2030, despite a huge increase in the size of the elderly population."

Already, the decline has put to rest fears that greater longevity would mean only more years in pain. A National Center for Health Statistics study published in August found the opposite: that older Americans typically are disability-free for the roughly 10 months of life expectancy that were added from 1992 to 2003.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/22918.html

[trof]

1. Wow. Had no idea Shorr was 91.

[lpbk2713]

2. They might want to consider changing his job title ...

... to Very Senior News Analyst. :shrug: