NIH Radio
Could Baby Boomers Be Approaching Retirement in Worse Shape Than Their Predecessors?
Brief Description:
Americans in their early to mid-50s currently report poorer health, more pain and more trouble doing every day physical tasks than their older peers reported when they were the same age in recent years.
Transcript:
Schmalfeldt: Conventional wisdom tells us that each subsequent generation enters its retirement years in better physical shape than the preceding generation, right? Not so fast. There's some surprising indications in research supported by the National Institute of Aging that suggests something quite different. According to a report by the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research, Americans in their early to mid-50s currently report poorer health, more pain and more trouble doing every day physical tasks than their older peers reported when they were the same age in recent years. The data came from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationwide NIA-sponsored survey of more than 20-thousand Americans over age 50 that began in 1992. The study showed that the two younger groups — aged 60 to 65 and aged 54 to 59 — were less likely to say that their health was "excellent" or "very good" in their early to mid 50s than was the older group — currently aged 66 to 71. This information begs further study according to Dr. Richard Suzman, director of NIA's Behavioral and Social Research Program
Suzman: I'm not yet sure it's a trend until I've seen other analyses and other data. I think that it's an early warning sign that I think should worry us, but I don't think it's reached the level of an established fact.
Schmalfeldt: According to the survey, the youngest group reported having more pain, chronic health conditions, drinking and psychiatric problems than people who were the same age just 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. Could it be that the older group in the survey is just looking back at their early to mid 50s through rose colored glasses or could the younger group be — well, whinier than usual? Dr. Suzman doesn't think so.
Suzman: It could be that there's been what you might call "semantic drift" — that their health hasn't changed but they're complaining more or their expectations are higher. That may be part of it, but I doubt that it gets such a big change over such a short time.
Schmalfeldt: If this decline establishes a trend, it would be a reversal of the dramatic decline in disability among people 65 and older over the past two decades. Researchers will investigate whether this trend will continue, accelerate or decelerate with the retirement of the baby boom. This will be a critically important question in planning for health, housing and other needs for this wave of retirees who begin to turn 65 in 2011 — just four years from now. From the National Institutes of Health, I'm Bill Schmalfeldt in Bethesda, Maryland.
About This Audio Report
Date: 3/09/2007
Reporter: Bill Schmalfeldt
Sound Bite: Dr. Richard Suzman
Topic: Aging
Institute(s): NIA
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