A groundbreaking study from the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health has uncovered remarkable improvements in the health of older adults in England compared to past generations.
Departing from the traditional disease-based view of health, this research, published in Nature Aging, adopted an innovative approach that focused on analyzing trends in people’s functional capacities – spanning cognitive, locomotor, psychological, and sensory aspects.
Leveraging data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, the study determined that today’s older adults enjoy higher levels of physical and mental functioning at the same age as their predecessors.
“The enhancements were substantial,” noted John Beard, MBBS, PhD, the Irene Diamond Professor of Aging in Health Policy and Management at the Butler Columbia Aging Center. For instance, a 68-year-old born in 1950 exhibited a similar capacity to a 62-year-old born a decade earlier, and those born in 1940 fared better than those born in 1930 or 1920. Beard added, “Had we contrasted someone born in 1950 with someone born in 1920, the improvements would likely have been even more pronounced.”
Beard and his team replicated similar analyses using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). While they detected comparable trends, the Chinese study’s shorter follow-up period imposed certain limitations.
Beard attributes these improvements primarily to advancements in education, nutrition, and sanitation throughout the 20th century. Medical breakthroughs – like joint replacements and enhanced treatments for chronic ailments – also likely played a part. However, the researchers issue a caveat: their findings pertain to a specific period and a single country. The same trends might not hold true in the US or across all demographics.
“We were astonished by the magnitude of these improvements, especially when comparing post-World War II cohorts with earlier-born groups. But there’s no guarantee we’ll witness the same progress in the future. Factors like the growing obesity epidemic could potentially reverse these trends. It’s also probable that more privileged groups reaped greater benefits. Nevertheless, overall, the trends were robust and suggest that, for many, 70 could well be the new 60,” Beard explained.
Aging expert Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois lauded the study, stating, “This is a powerful piece. It demonstrates that intrinsic capacity – what truly matters to people as they age – is inherently modifiable. With this evidence, we see that medical science can augment intrinsic capacity, offering a hopeful outlook for the future.”
The research team comprises Katja Hanewald and Yafei Si from the UNSW Business School in Sydney, Australia, affiliated with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Aging Research (CEPAR); Jotheeswaran Amuthavalli Thiyagarajan from the World Health Organization’s Department of Maternal, Child, Adolescent Health and Aging in Geneva; and Dario Moreno-Agostino from the UCL Social Research Institute at University College London and the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health at King’s College London.
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