Feds find that disabilities are declining among elderly

A surprising decline in dis- ability 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 free from disabilities.

"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 U.S. residents.

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 U.S. residents typically are disability-free for the roughly 10 months of life expectancy that were added from 1992 to 2003.

The chief vexation of living to be 94, the Tennessee-bred Bolling said recently, is women who get up to give him seats on buses.

"The idea of a woman giving a man a seat is unheard of in my Southern culture," he said.

Obesity, smoking are negatives

Not everyone wins equally or even wins from declines in disabilities, however.

According to Dr. Eileen Crimmins, a professor of gerontology and sociology at the University of Southern California, 25 percent of Latino and black U.S. residents older than 65 need help with basic tasks. For whites, the rate is 17 percent. Differences in disability rates linked to income and education persist, Crimmins and others have found, and although women live longer than men, they endure more disabilities.

There are two clouds on the horizon, Suzman noted. One is higher obesity rates in those who aren't 65. Obesity increases the likelihood of chronic back and joint pain, among other disabilities, and it's associated with increases in heart disease, diabetes and the disabilities that accompany them.

The second is the effects of smoking. They're declining among men, who in general took up smoking years before most women did. These men suffered for their smoking, in terms of disability and longevity, and now are gaining from the scourge's passing and-or their quitting.

It hasn't passed, statistically speaking, for millions of women who started smoking in the '60s or more recently.

Nonetheless, today's gains from declining disability rates are huge for large numbers of people.

Suzman said he had no recent estimate of how many more older Americans were living disability-free. However, he once calculated that if 1982 rates of chronic disability among the elderly had persisted through 1999, there would have been 2.4 million more sufferers in 1999.

The decline shows up in Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that growing numbers of older Americans are continuing or returning to work. The good news: Their earnings reduce the pressures on Social Security, as well as on households. In addition, Dr. Kenneth Manton, a research professor for demographic studies at Duke University in Durham, N.C., projects Medicare savings from reduced chronic disability of $73 billion for 2009 alone.

Abler older people exercise more, which is why the AARP offers its members discounts at Gold's Gym, Curves and a personal trainer group called the American Council on Exercise.