More Disabilities Today in 60-Year-Olds Than in Prior Generations

In a development that could have significant ramifications for the nation's health care system, baby boomers may well be entering their 60s suffering far more disabilities than their counterparts did in previous generations, according to a new UCLA study. The findings, researchers say, may be due in part to changing American demographics.

In the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers from the division of geriatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA found that the cohort of individuals aged 60 to 69 exhibited increases in several types of disabilities over time. By contrast, those aged 70 to 79 and those aged 80 and over saw no significant increases—and in some cases exhibited fewer disabilities than their previous cohorts.

While the study focused on groups born prior to the post-World War II baby boom, the findings hold "significant and sobering implications" for healthcare because they suggest that people now entering their 60s could have even more disabilities, putting an added burden on an already fragile system and boosting health costs for society as a whole, researchers say.

The researchers used two sets of data—the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) for 1988 and 1999—to examine how disabilities for the three groups of adults aged 60, 70, and 80 and older had changed over time. They assessed disability trends in four areas: basic activities associated with daily living, such as walking from room to room and getting into and out of bed; instrumental activities, such as performing household chores or preparing meals; mobility, including walking one-quarter mile or climbing 10 steps without stopping for rest; and functional limitations, which include stooping, crouching, or kneeling.

The researchers found that between the periods 1988 and 1999, disability among those in their 60s increased between 40% and 70% in each area studied except functional limitations, independent of sociodemographic characteristics, health status and behaviors, and relative weight. The increases were considerably higher among nonwhite and overweight subgroups.

By contrast, the researchers found no significant changes among the group aged 70 to 79, while the 80-plus group actually saw a drop in functional limitations.

One reason for this uptick, researchers say, is that disabilities may be linked with the changing racial and ethnic makeup of the group that recently reached or will soon be reaching its 60s, with the most rapid growth projected to be among African Americans and Hispanics—groups with significantly higher rates of obesity and lower socioeconomic status, both of which are associated with higher risk for functional limitations and disabilities.

— Source: University of California - Los Angeles