WEDNESDAY, May 7 (HealthDay News) -- Senior citizens with disabilities are twice as likely as their non-disabled counterparts to being taking at least one prescription drug deemed inappropriate for people 65 or older, according to new research.

The study, based on 2004 data, reports that about a quarter of disabled seniors in the United States have taken one of 33 medications regarded as ineffective or posing a high risk of side effects to the elderly. These drugs include Xanax, Demerol, Darvon and Procardia.

Only 13 percent of seniors without disabilities used these medications, according to the analysis, published in the latest News and Numbers from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The analysis also found the prescription drug misuse ran slightly higher among people with complex disabilities when compared with those having basic disabilities (27 percent vs. 23 percent). A person is considered to have a complex disability if his or her ability to work or socialize is hindered; a person with only limited ability to walk, bathe or perform everyday activities is said to have a basic disability.

Education, but neither race nor ethnicity, appeared to affect the likelihood that seniors would take an inappropriate medication. Disabled seniors with disabilities who did not finish or receive education beyond high school were more likely to use potentially inappropriate drugs than those who attended college.

The analysis is based on the 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report, an examination of disparities in access to and quality of health care by race, ethnicity, income and education.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more about medications and older people.

MONDAY, April 21 (HealthDay News) -- With age comes wisdom, and now new research suggests happiness tags along for the ride.

Surveys of Americans taken since 1972 suggest that plenty of older people are quite happy, with more than half of black men and women over the age of 80 saying they're "very happy," with older white men and women following suit.

Young people were far behind. Only a third of 18-year-old white men surveyed said they were "very happy," and 28 percent of white women did. Young blacks were even less likely to report being happy.

As for generations, those born between 1946 and 1964 were least likely to say they're happy. "Baby boomers are less content with life as a whole," said study author Yang Yang, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago.

Yang examined data from the University of Chicago's General Social Survey, which conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,500 to 3,000 people during each survey period. With some exceptions, surveys were taken annually from 1972-1994, and every other year after that.

Since 1972, the survey had asked Americans this question: "Taken all together, how would you say things are these days -- would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy or not too happy?"

In her new study, published in the April issue of the American Sociological Review, Yang looked at trends in happiness across various ages and races from 1972 to 2004.

Happiness increased over time, rising to high levels when people were older even as they presumably faced health problems and the deaths of friends and family.

"I am surprised by the fact that older adults are able to maintain a high level of subjective well-being despite general declines in physical health," Yang said. That is "a paradox that deserves future research."

Yang was also surprised that general levels of happiness didn't grow over the years, even as America became a richer country. "Over time, the happiness level is quite stable," Yang said.

The survey results also showed that differences in happiness by gender, race and education level lessened as people aged.

Still, the gap between blacks and whites persisted in the most recent 10-year period, even as the happiness levels of men and women evened out, Yang said.

And what of the Baby Boomers and their supposed inability to be as happy as other generations? "This is probably due to the fact that the generation as a group was so large, and their expectations were so great, that not everyone in the group could get what he or she wanted as they aged due to competition for opportunities," Yang said in a statement. "This could lead to disappointment that could undermine happiness."

As for the seeming happiness of older people, there are plenty of theories. One explanation "has to do with the human tendency to make social comparisons: If people compare themselves to others and figure they're better off than some other people their age, they are likely to feel happier than if they think they're worse off than others," said Rosemary Blieszner, a professor of human development at Virginia Tech.

Perception may play a role in the big picture. Americans assume that older people are unhappy, because they seem to have "no exciting jobs, no passionate sex lives, and poor health and a lot of wrinkles," said Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Riverside.

The reality may be very different.

In another study in the same issue of the journal, University of Chicago researchers reported that, contrary to popular thought, older people do stay social as they age, often volunteering, attending religious services, and spending time with their neighbors.

More information

How happy are you? Check this Pew Research Center survey   to find out.

MONDAY, April 21 (HealthDay News) -- In women aged 80 and older, regular mammograms reduce the risk of being diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer, but only about 20 percent of U.S. women in this age group have regular screenings, a new study shows.

The study is published online April 21 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Women aged 80 and older account for an estimated 17 percent of breast cancer cases in the United States.

"This study suggests that mammography benefits may have no age limit and that women should consider being screened on a regular basis, even into their 80s and possibly 90s, depending on their current health status," study author Dr. Brian D. Badgwell, a surgical oncology fellow at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, said in a prepared statement.

"Mammography has been shown to be an excellent means of detecting breast cancer early, when it is more likely to be cured. We found that when breast cancer was diagnosed, it was more likely to be found at an early stage when a woman had at least three mammograms in the five-year period before diagnosis," Badgwell said.

Doctors and older female patients should discuss the benefits of mammography, he recommended.

For this study, Badgwell and colleagues analyzed five years (1996 to 2002) of mammography use among 12,358 women aged 80 and older before they were diagnosed with breast cancer. The data came from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) national cancer registry.

Women who didn't have a mammography during this time were labeled nonusers (49 percent), those who had one to two mammograms were irregulars users (29 percent), and those who had three or more mammograms were regular users (22 percent).

The researchers found that 68 percent of regular users were diagnosed with stage I (early) breast cancer, compared with 56 percent of irregular users and 33 percent of nonusers. Only 32 percent of regular users were diagnosed with stage II-IV cancers, compared with 44 percent of irregular users and 67 percent of nonusers.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about screening mammograms.