American oldies are not cheerful at all
The generation of post-war baby boomers grew into weak and infirm old menABC Magazine
The main characteristic of the generation of 60-year-olds born in 1946-1964 in the USA is impotence.
Only one in five 60-year-olds can self-serve themselves. 10 years ago, this figure was 13% higher. To varying degrees, 40 to 70% of 60-69-year-old Americans are unable to exist without outside help today, says Teresa E. Seeman, a researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles. The results are published in the November issue of the American Journal of Public Health: Environmental Justice: A Continuing Commitment to an Evolving Concept.
(A detailed popular retelling of the article can be read, for example, on the MedPage Today website: Disability Rates Climbing in Youngest Older Adults – VM.)
The Siman group analyzed data for people aged about 60 years, collected in 1988-1994 and in 1999-2004. According to the results of the comparative analysis,
• It is 70% harder for 60-year-olds of the late 1990s – early 2000s to move even around the house, clean their beds, get dressed and cook for themselves than for their peers of the late 1980s.
• it is 50% more difficult to walk 300-400 meters or take 10 steps without stopping;
• they are 40% more likely to experience problems with bending, squatting, kneeling, lifting and carrying a 4-5-kilogram load or just standing on their feet.
These indicators are overlaid with data on the obesity epidemic in the United States. Citizens whose 60th birthday was in 1999-2004 were more likely to suffer from obesity, had a larger waist size and were less likely to exercise than 60-year-olds from 1988-1994. Moreover, among such overweight and "powerless", African Americans and Spanish-speaking citizens of the United States are more common. However, the researchers note, so far, even taking into account all factors – race, health, physiology and behavior – it is still not possible to explain why children born during the demographic explosion grew into a generation of weak and infirm old people.
(How do you think US citizens who are now 40 and 20 years old will feel in the pre-retirement age? – VM.)
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru17.11.2009