© FlickrHome health aides provide routine health care, such as bathing, dressing or grooming, to elderly, convalescent or disabled persons in the home of patients or in a residential care facility.
Los Angeles - Studies have shown that Americans are living longer, but the extended life expectancy comes with an increase in disability rates as we age,
showing us that long life does not insure that we will also have good health.In the University of Southern California study, trends in life expectancy and disability rates of Americans, covering a 40-year period, from 1970 through 2010 were examined, reports
Science News Online.
While the study found that the average life span for both men and women increased during those 40 years, so too, did the proportion of time spent living with a health or disability issue.
The study clearly showed that increased longevity in most age groups is not a clear indicator of good health."We could be increasing the length of poor quality life more than good-quality life," said lead author Eileen Crimmins, USC University Professor and AARP Professor of Gerontology at the
USC Davis School of Gerontology.
"There are a number of indications that the Baby Boomer generation that is now reaching old age is not seeing improvements in health similar to the older groups that went before them." Only for people aged 65 and older was there a "compression of morbidity" -- a reduction in the proportion of years spent with a disability."
The findings have clear implications for policymakers and the health care industry. This is why it is so important to be proactive in maintaining good health when we are younger if we want to have a meaningful "compression of morbidity across the age range," Crimmins said.
Crimmins adds that assumption-based trends over the past 40 years have been wrong when they said there would be a reduced length of disabled life. The trends don't support the projections and policies.
Comment: Like any powerful tool, when used consciously and with an Aim, the internet can be extremely beneficial. But if it's used unconsciously and aimlessly, then the internet can easily overrun us and we become slaves to it, staring mindlessly at social media and cat videos for hours on end. So be the master of the tool, use it consciously, and balance your life out with other activities and real social interaction, rather than letting the tool become your master.