TUESDAY, Oct. 25, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- While overall disability rates among older Americans dropped substantially over the past two decades, the decline was much less among those with less education and less money, says a University of Michigan study.
Researchers reviewed data on 172,227 people aged 70 and older, and found that in 1982, about 23 percent of people in that age group reported some form of health problem or physical limitation that affected their ability to take care of themselves and live independently. That declined to 16 percent by 2002.
Over those two decades, the percentage of Americans aged 70 and older who needed help with household chores, shopping and transportation went from about 15 percent to 8 percent.
However, the study also found major differences between more and less advantaged older Americans in terms of declines in disability rates. People in the lowest level of income and with the least education showed only modest improvements in rates of the least severe forms of disability and no improvements in rates of severe disability.
The study appears in the November issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
"At the moment, we can only speculate about the causes of these widening disparities," study author Robert Schoeni, a research professor at the university's Institute for Social Research, said in a prepared statement.
"But disability is a function of both underlying physical capacity and the environment in which a person lives and works. So closing the gaps in late-life functioning may require a combination of medical, behavioral and environmental interventions over the lifetime," Schoeni said.
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