March 2007

Retiring baby boomers in bad physical shape?

Americans in their early to mid-50s report poorer health, more pain, and more trouble doing everyday physical tasks than their older peers reported at the same age in years past, according to research published in print and online by the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

The study, supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a component of the National Institutes of Health, showed:

• The two younger groups (born in 1942–47 and in 1948–53) were less likely than the oldest group (born in 1936–41) to have said their health was “excellent or very good” at 51 to 56 years of age.
• The youngest group reported having more pain, chronic health conditions, and drinking and psychiatric problems than people who were the same age 12 years earlier.
• Compared with the oldest group, the youngest group was more likely to have reported difficulty in walking, climbing steps, getting up from a chair, kneeling, or crouching, and doing other normal daily physical tasks.

In the past two decades, there has been a dramatic decline in disability among people 65 and older. This new analysis provides some initial data raising the question of whether today’s pre-retirees could reach retirement age in worse shape than their predecessors, with individuals potentially in poorer health than current retirees and possibly increasing health care costs for society.

Researchers and policymakers are vitally interested in whether this trend will continue, accelerate, or decelerate with the retirement of the baby boom, a critically important concern in planning for health, housing, and other needs for this wave of retirees, who begin to turn 65 in 2011.

Source: National Institutes of Health NIH News National Institute on Aging (NIA), www.nia.nih.gov

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