News Article: We Live Longer, But with More Disease than a Decade Ago

New research reveals that increased life expectancy in the United States has been accompanied with decreased years of health. Cardiovascular and other diseases and disabilities have been increasing right along with expected years of life.

Although the probability of a 65-year-old surviving age 85 has doubled from 20% to 40% from 1970 to 2005, new research from Eileen Crimmins, AARP Chair in Gerontology at the University of Southern California, indicates that the average “morbidity,” or period of one’s life spent with a serious disease or loss of functional mobility, has actually increased over the decades.

“There is substantial evidence that we have done little to date to eliminate or delay disease while we have prevented death from diseases,” Crimmins explained.

In 1998, a male 20-year-old could expect to live another 45 years free from at least one of the lead causes of death; cardiovascular disease, cancer or diabetes. A 20-year-old female could expect to live another 49.2 years free from these diseases. That number fell to 43.8 years for males to 48 years for females over the past decade.

Also since 1998, the occurrence of cardiovascular disease amongst older men has increased as well as the occurrence of cancer amongst older men and women. The occurrence of Diabetes increased significantly amongst all adults over age 30. The percentage of the population with multiple diseases has also risen.

Functional mobility is defined as the ability to walk up ten steps, walk a quarter mile, stand or sit for 2 hours, and stand, bend or kneel without the help of equipment. A decade ago, a male 20-year-old could expect to spend 3.8 years of his life without functional mobility and a female 20-year-old could expect to spend 7.3 years without functional mobility. Now the numbers have increased to 5.8 years for males and 9.8 years for females.

“The growing problem of lifelong obesity and increases in hypertension and high cholesterol are a sign that health may not be improving with each generation,” Crimmins said. “We do not appear to be moving to a world where we die without experiencing significant periods of disease, functioning loss, and disability.”