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Getting older, getting better Good health the rule for all but the most elderly December 14, 1998 It could seem like a litany of misery. Nearly half of the elderly population struggles with arthritis. About one-third have high blood pressure. Almost a third suffer some hearing loss. And almost half of those older than 85 are afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease. Despite all that, the 65-plus population today is healthier than any of its counterparts in history. Its members live longer than their predecessors and say in surveys that they are overwhelmingly satisfied with their health. They benefit from government health insurance; medical advances that reduce disease; growing home health care services; and a new focus on exercise and diet. In Pittsburgh, they are the primary consumers of a comprehensive, sophisticated health care industry. So while they have their share of ailments, and some who find it hard to take them in stride, today’s older Americans largely represent a resilient generation toughened by surviving the Depression, wars and more than six decades’ worth of potential calamities. Jane Miller, 86, a survivor of heart surgery and breast cancer, spends some of her time watching television at the small personal care home she inhabits in Moon. But she also voluntarily performs housekeeping chores to keep productive, and she makes sure she gets out to attend church and visit relatives. "When I can’t take care of myself any more and I become a burden to somebody else, then the Lord can take me. But an ache or a pain? That doesn’t mean very much any more," the slender woman said. Milt Sniderman, 72, of Squirrel Hill, still engages in volunteer activities despite bouts with cancer, diabetes and heart ailments. He’s not the kind of farflung traveler he hoped he would be when he retired as a nuclear engineer, but he isn’t about to become homebound. "I’m still here, and 20 or so years ago, I didn’t think I would be, with the cancer," he said. "I go to cardiac rehabilitation twice a week, watch the diabetes, exercise and diet and try to keep going."
Rose Redondo, 76, of Millvale, ignored the aches when she helped her husband lay 300 bricks to build a wall this summer. "Your mind keeps going ahead of your body, where the body says, ‘Not quite, Rose,’ and the arthritis sets in, but that goes along with aging," she said. "Both of us are hard workers and we’re in good health. That’s the bottom line. Each day has to mean something." To many people, staying active means staying out of a nursing home. Seniors cite the prospect of institutionalization as their worst fear. They also go to bed each night praying not to lose their mental abilities. "People will fight, scratch, do anything they can to stay independent as long as they can," said Ron Barrett, executive vice president of Redstone Highlands, a Greensburg-based developer and operator of various levels of housing for senior citizens. His company has broadened its focus to begin delivering elder care in people’s homes. "That’s the story of the future," not building more nursing homes or other housing, Barrett said. Just how healthy and self-sufficient older adults remain has a large bearing on whether they’re more of an asset or a burden to the Pittsburgh region, which has the largest percentage of elderly among large cities outside of Florida. Healthier old people Health researchers base much of their optimism about the elderly on findings of the National Long Term Care Survey, which tracks disability rates among those 65 and over. The survey suggests the number with disabilities is unavoidably increasing, but at a slower rate than the growth of the elderly population. The survey attempts to measure the number of individuals with difficulty in basic tasks such as eating, dressing and bathing and supplemental activities such as meal preparation and shopping. The essential tasks are known collectively as Activities of Daily Living and the supplementals as Instrumental Activities of Daily Living.
The survey by Duke University researchers in 1994 found the rate of disability among the elderly – in performing any of the activities — was 14.5 percent less than it was 12 years earlier in the same study. The number of older people with any functional problem had increased from 6.4 million to 7.1 million, but would have gone to 8.3 million if the disability rates had stayed as high as they were in 1982. The 1994 survey identified 21.3 percent of the elderly population who had some kind of disability. Since fewer than 5 percent of the elderly are in nursing homes, that means most people with limitations are using paid providers, relatives or others to manage at home. And about 79 percent of the elderly need little or no help. "One of the most pithy statistics one can quote is approximately four of every five older people are in good enough mental and physical health to determine their own lives," said M. Powell Lawton, director of research at Philadelphia Geriatric Center. In a separate national survey in 1992, three-fourths of respondents ages 65-74 considered their health good to excellent. Two out of three who were older than that rated themselves the same way. That’s not to suggest old people don’t get sick. They average more than twice as many doctors’ visits as people 15-44, according to government statistics. They’re admitted to hospitals nearly four times as often as young people, and they stay longer while there. On any given day, slightly more than half the patients in a typical Pittsburgh hospital are elderly, and their percentage is even higher at rural medical centers. But research shows elderly individuals are remaining healthier longer than previous generations, in part because they’re better educated.
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