By Stephen Beech
Older people today are much healthier than previous generations, according to a new study.
Better education, nutrition and sanitation have all played “key” roles in slowing age-related declines in well-being – and “70 really may be the new 60”, say scientists.
Researchers found “significant improvements” in the health of older adults in England when compared to previous generations.
Rather than considering health through the presence or absence of disease, the study applied a new approach that examined trends in people’s functioning – their cognitive, locomotor, psychological, and sensory capacities.
Using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, the American research team found that older people today experience higher levels of physical and mental functioning than previous generations did at the same age.
Study author Professor John Beard, of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York, said: “These improvements were large.
“For example, a 68-year-old born in 1950 had a similar capacity to a 62-year-old born a decade earlier, and those born in 1940 had better functioning than those born in 1930 or 1920.
“If we had compared someone born in 1950 with someone born in 1920, we would have likely observed even greater improvements.”
Beard and his colleagues undertook similar analyses in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS).
They found similar trends, although the analysis was limited by the much shorter follow-up period in the Chinese study compared to the English study, published in the journal Nature Aging.
Beard says that improvements in education, nutrition, and sanitation over the course of the 20th Century are likely to have played a “key” role.
He said medical advances – such as joint replacements and better treatments for chronic conditions – were also likely to be contributing factors.
Beard added: “We were surprised by just how large these improvements were, particularly when comparing people born after World War Two with earlier-born groups.
“But there is nothing to say we will continue to see the same improvements moving forward, and changes such as the increasing prevalence of obesity may even see these trends reverse.
“It is also likely that more advantaged groups will have experienced greater gains than others.
“But overall, the trends were very strong and suggest that, for many people, 70 really may be the new 60.”
Aging expert Professor Jay Olshansky, of the University of Illinois, welcomed the findings.
He said: “This is a powerful article.
“It shows that intrinsic capacity – what really matters to people as they age – is inherently modifiable.
“With this evidence, we see that medical science can enhance intrinsic capacity, providing a hopeful message for the future.”
