Reporting on Health Webinar slides, 12/12/2014

1. Why I Expect to be
Alive at 75

4. Americans Are Living Longer
Than Ever

5. What is missing from these
portraits?

6. What is missing from these
portraits?
• Roughly 40 million Americans over 65.
• Assisted living residents—1 million
• Nursing home residents—1.7 million
• Homebound elderly—3.6 million

7. What’s Important in Life?

8. Is it Quantity of Life or
Quality of Life?

9. The American Immortal

10. Is It Quantity?
• Aubrey de Grey,
biomedical gerontologist.
• He claims the first person
who will live to 150 has
already been born.
• The first person who live
to 1,000 will be born in the
next 20 years.

11. Some People Want Quality of
Life
• “American Immortals”
• Desire fuels push for
regenerative medicine
• Some want to live to
be 1,000

12. Compression of Morbidity
• Theory developed in 1980
by James F. Fries
• As we extend our
lifespans into the 80s and
90s, we will live healthier
lives
• We will develop disabilities
later and have fewer
disabilities overall

13. How Should We Think About
Growing Old and Dying?
• Part I—The Nature of Old Age
• Part II—The Nature of Dying
• Part III—The Meaning of Life

14. The Nature of Old Age
• Physical Disabilities
• Mental Disabilities
• Dementia
• The Expansion of Morbidity
• Decrease in Creativity

15. Physical Disabilities
• Between 1998 and 2006, the percentage
of American men ages 80 and older with a
physical limitation increased from 28% to
42%.
• In 2006, more than half of women 80 and
older had a physical limitation.
Eileen Crimmins, USC

16. Mental Disabilities
• Slower mental processing
• A decrease in working and long-term
memory
• An increase in distractibility

17. Prevalence of Alzheimer’s
Disease by Age
British Medical Journal

18. Americans with Alzheimer’s
Disease
Alzheimer’s Association

19. The Expansion of Morbidity

20. The Expansion of Morbidity
Eileen Crimmins, USC

21. Age-Related Loss of Creativity
• Research from Dean
Keith Simonton at the
University of California
at Davis has shown
creativity peaks about
20 years into the
career and then enters
an age-related decline

22. Caregiving Burdens
• In 2013, family and friends provided 17.7
billion hours of unpaid care to those with
Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
• Additional care for adults with physical
disabilities and dying patients.
Alzheimer’s Association

23. What Makes Life Meaningful?

24. Happiness

25. Happiness
• “U-Curve” of
happiness
• The people who rate
themselves as most
happy are ages 82-85
• Happiness is linked to
social engagements
and community ties

26. Happiness
• The study had a biased sample – it did
NOT include any person in a nursing
home
• Increasing happiness was linked to a
narrowing of goals

27. Happiness is not the answer
Meaningfulness is

28. Attitude of Patients with
Cancer
• “Best thing that ever
happened to me”
• Cancer makes them focus

29. A Meaningful Life
• We contribute to our communities
and families
• We enrich the people around us
• We feel fulfilled