Feature: Healthy Aging for Americans

An MSU expert on aging explains how new research findings can help Americans grow old successfully.

            You are probably a baby boomer. If not, chances are you have some close relatives who are. As this generation, which has long dominated American demographics, approaches retirement, issues of aging and health are rising to national prominence. Clearly, it is an appropriate time to re-think this issue, and two recent books provide an excellent framework based on what we know from the latest research.

            One of them is Successful Aging, by John Rowe, MD, president of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and Robert Kahn, PhD, Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan. This book reports on a series of research studies funded by the MacArthur Foundation which include, among others, a study of more than 1,000 high-functioning older adults over a period of eight years to find out more about what predicts successful physical and mental aging. The second book is Psychology and the Aging Revolution, edited by Sara Qualls, director of the Center on Aging at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and myself.

            I'm here at MSU’s Dept. of Psychology and my students and I do research on mood and memory with older adults. Based on the demographics of the readership of this magazine, I believe that successful aging is an issue of significant interest to most of you. I will introduce some statistics and dispel some myths about aging from the book Successful Aging. Then I will sum up some findings from Aging Revolution. This will include topics on aging and depression, knowledge is power, and social relationships in later life. I will conclude with some predictions about the future.

            Do you know that in 1900 life expectancy was around 47 years? If your child was born in the year 2000, life expectancy is about 76 years. One of the chapter authors, Jim Birren of the UCLA Center for Aging, points out that many adults today will experience what he calls the 'third age' following retirement, where one can expect 20-30 years of meaningful activities after retirement. Most people in the U.S. retire around age 63 and while economic pressures (e.g., Social Security benefits will soon be at age 67 instead of 65) for later retirement are upon us, delays to age 70 would still leave a rapidly growing post retirement population. A recent article in USA Today (Aug. 3, 2000) suggested that soon middle age will begin at age 80!

            Many individuals ask about the components of successful aging. A recent study by the MacArthur Foundation looked at high functioning adults aged 70-79. The study found that there were four factors which predicted maintenance of cognitive functioning. They were education, cardiovascular health, amount of strenuous physical activity around the house and what is called self efficacy. This refers to the belief in your ability to exercise control over your own functioning and over the demands of the environment. The results of the MacArthur studies argued that the capacity for positive change does persist into old age and what you do now, more than heredity contributes to your overall vitality.

            The authors of Successful Aging list six common aging myths, based on the available scientific data. They are:

1. Being old means being sick
2. Old dogs can't learn new tricks
3. The horse is no longer in the barn
4. If you want to live to a healthy old age, choose your parents wisely
5. A little light may be left, but the voltage is low
6. Older adults no longer are capable of pulling their own weight.

            First, does being old mean being sick? In the old days people used to die of infections. Now chronic diseases are more common. However, compared to 30 years ago, there is a significant reduction in the precursors to chronic disease. These precursors include high blood pressure, smoking and high cholesterol levels. These precursors are subject to changes you and I can make in our lifestyles and even small changes make a difference. The important issue, however, is not so much the focus on illness but on how people function. One school of thought suggests that in years to come there will be a reduction in the number of non-fatal diseases so that people will live longer and will lead an active life. The authors insist that scientific data supports the contention that being old in America does not mean being sick and weak.

            The second myth is the presumed inability to benefit from learning as one gets older. A lot of people who participate in our own MSU mood and memory project come to us because they are worried about their mental functioning and they are especially worried about what they believe are early signs of Alzheimer's disease. The MacArthur Studies indicate that 95 percent of older people live in the community and only 5 percent live in nursing homes. Actually, some aspects of learning are more restricted in older adults. For example, short term memory in older adults is less strong than in younger adults. But our research shows that some of this can be overcome by training.

            Now, for the third myth. Many of you may have heard the argument that once you are old it is too late to change one's bad habits. Some will insist that if you have led a sedentary life up to now it is too late to change that now. Or, if you have always lived on a diet of meat and potatoes you might as well stay with that. Some cigarette smokers will ask, “What good it is to change that habit now?” They clearly believe that it is too late. Well, research suggests that nature is forgiving and that changing some of these habits later in life does have positive effects. Thus, the increased risk for heart disease is more related to weight than it is to age. If you are overweight and older and you reduce your body weight by even 10 percent there is a positive effect on reducing risk factors.

            The fourth myth deals with heredity. Many people believe that there is no real benefit to making changes in our lifestyle if we are already destined to die about the same time our parents died, especially if they died at a relatively young age. It is true that researchers have shown that there is more variation in length of life between nonidentical twins than there is between identical twins. But for a great majority of diseases, lifestyle and environment have a strong influence. That is indeed good news for people who are worried because there is a history of heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis or high blood pressure in their families.

            Myth number five is the common perception that older adults have decreased physical and mental abilities and the insinuation that they are less interested in sex, and in particular, that men are less able to perform sexually. Why else should there be all this media publicity about the drug Viagra? The authors note that these stereotypes are clearly overdone. Sure, there is some decrease in physical and mental abilities and some decrease in sexual activities among older adults, but individual differences are great and with regard to sexual activity, chronological age is not the most significant factor. The authors suggest there is more need for research on the overall topic of sexuality in older adults particularly in terms of the overall relationship between the sexual act and other forms of physical intimacy. They point out that the need for affectionate physical contact is a lifelong process.

            The last of the six myths suggests that older folks no longer pull their own weight. Is it true that older adults are essentially unproductive and do not contribute sufficiently to our society? The authors disagree. They point out that the often unstated underlying assumption is that if you don't work for pay you are not being productive and therefore you must be a burden to society.