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Healthy Aging
Preserving Function and Improving
Quality of Life Among Older Americans
At A Glance
2008
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![Cover of At A Glance](images/2008/aging01.jpg)
“The aging of the U.S. population is one of the major
public health challenges of the 21st century. With more than 70 million baby
boomers in the United States poised to join the ranks of those aged 65 or
older, preventing disease and injury is one of the few tools available to
reduce the expected growth of health care and long-term care costs.”
Julie Louise Gerberding, MD, MPH
Director
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Health and Economic Effects of an Aging Society
By 2030, the proportion of the U.S. population aged 65 years or older
will double to about 71 million older adults. The far-reaching implications
of the increasing number of older Americans and their growing diversity will
include unprecedented demands on public health, aging services, and the
nation’s health care system.
Medicare spending has grown about nine-fold in the past 25 years, from
$37 billion in 1980 to $336 billion in 2005. By 2030, health care spending
will increase 25%, largely because of the aging population.
Chronic diseases disproportionately affect older adults and are
associated with disability, diminished quality of life, and increased costs
for health care and long-term care. Today, about 80% of older adults have at
least one chronic condition, and 50% have at least two. These conditions can
cause years of pain and loss of function. Public health efforts can help
Americans avoid preventable illness and disability as they age. Research has
shown that poor health is not an inevitable consequence of aging. Effective
public health strategies already exist to help older adults remain
independent longer, improve their quality of life, and potentially delay the
need for long-term care.
![Graph showing causes of death among U.S. adults aged 65 or older, 2004](images/2008/aging02.gif)
[A text description of this map is also available.]
![Map shownig which states have selected CDC-supported healthy aging programs, 2003-2007](images/2008/aging03.gif)
[A text description of this map is also available.]
Opportunities To Improve Older Americans’ Health and Quality of Life
Our growing knowledge of critical factors that help to protect and
promote health has led to opportunities to address emerging public health
issues that affect older adults. These include opportunities to
- Promote an up-to-date measure for clinical preventive services.
Population-based data on preventive services recommended for older
adults, such as immunizations and regular health screenings, are
currently monitored individually. An up-to-date measure would help us to
promote these services and collect better data to improve public health
services and guide policy.
- Address depression. Depression affects nearly 7 million older
adults, but many do not receive treatment. Undiagnosed and untreated
depression among older adults can increase complications from other
conditions, such as heart disease and disability, as well as risk for
death.
- Promote caregiving interventions. In 2004, about 35 million people
were providing unpaid care for family members, friends, and neighbors
for adults aged 50 years or older. This number is expected to rise
sharply as the U.S. population ages. Family caregiving has been
associated with increased levels of depression and anxiety, as well as
with high use of psychoactive medications, poor self-reported physical
health, compromised immune function, and increased mortality among
caregivers.
- Address end-of-life issues. The public health community has only
recently come to recognize end-of-life issues as a public health
concern. These issues are important because of the substantial burden
and impact on people who are dying and their family members, as well as
the financial costs for individuals and society and the potential to
prevent suffering.
CDC’s Roles in Promoting Healthy Aging
CDC is committed to ensuring that all people, especially those at greater
risk for health disparities, achieve their optimal lifespan with the best
possible quality of health in every stage of life. With agency-wide health
protection goals that support healthy people in healthy places across all
life stages, CDC is setting the agenda to enable people to enjoy a healthy
life by delaying death and the onset of illness and disability through
public health measures designed to accelerate improvements in public health.
Within CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion, the Healthy Aging Program serves as the focal point for older
adult health at CDC. The Healthy Aging Program is engaged in many activities
designed to provide a comprehensive approach to helping older adults live
longer, high-quality, productive, and independent lives. This approach is
implemented in collaboration with CDC’s internal partners (e.g., those
focusing on injury prevention, disability prevention, and adult
immunizations) and key external groups. It includes the following activities
conducted by CDC’s Healthy Aging Program:
- Enhance the ability of states and communities to identify and
implement effective strategies, policies, and programs to promote and
protect the health of older adults. Research shows that if older
adults maintain just three health habits—moderate physical activity,
good nutrition, and not smoking—they can delay disability by as much as
10 years. The benefits of this research will never be realized unless
this knowledge is applied through community level strategies. The
Healthy Aging Program supports the Healthy Aging Research Network (HAN),
a group of nine CDC-supported Prevention Research Centers (see map, page
2) focused on improving the health of older Americans by conducting
prevention research, sharing their findings, and translating research
into health practices. Current HAN projects include reviewing
evidence-based interventions for depression and emotional health and
assessing public perceptions of cognitive health.
The Healthy Aging
Program also supported the HAN symposium, Effective Community-Based
Physical Activity Programs for Older Adults. The symposium brought
together researchers and service providers to review evidence-based
programs and successful strategies. The result was development and
dissemination of a guide for public health practitioners called Moving
Ahead: Strategies and Tools to Plan, Conduct, and Maintain Effective
Community-Based Physical Activity Programs for Older Adults. This guide
is available online at
http://www.cdc.gov/aging/pdf/Community-Based_Physical_Activity_Programs
_For_Older_Adults.pdf.
- Expand efforts to integrate public health and aging services and
enhance outreach for health promotion and disease prevention for older
adults. As described in the Older Americans Act, CDC advises the
aging services network, which reaches older adults in nearly every U.S.
community. The Healthy Aging Program strives to integrate public
health’s expertise in research, health tracking, and prevention programs
with the experience and reach of the aging services network. For
example, through the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors,
CDC funds SENIOR (State-based Examples of Network Innovation,
Opportunity, and Replication) grants in several states (see map, page
2). The grants are intended to help state health departments create
effective partnerships with state aging agencies to take strategic
action at state and local levels and to promote state policies that
recognize the importance of integrating healthy aging efforts into
chronic disease and other programs.
CDC is the lead national agency
responsible for collecting data and monitoring changes over time in the
health of older Americans. This information helps to strengthen efforts
to prevent disease, disability, and injury and to highlight
health-related disparities among older adults. In 2007, CDC’s Healthy
Aging Program, in collaboration with The Merck Company Foundation,
released The State of Aging and Health in America 2007. This report
equips public health and aging services professionals with national and
state data on 15 key indicators of older adult health. It also provides
calls to action and a special feature on falls. A searchable online
version is available at http://www.cdc.gov/aging/saha.htm.
- Promote health and preserve health-related quality of life for
older adults within the health care and other systems. Medicare pays
for many critical preventive services, yet in 2004, only 38.4% of men
and 31.6% of women aged 65 or older were up-to-date on selected
preventive services (flu vaccine, pneumonia vaccine, and colorectal
cancer screening for men; these services plus mammography for women).
CDC’s Healthy Aging Program supports a model program called SPARC
(Sickness Prevention Achieved through Regional Collaboration) that has
shown documented success in broadening the use of clinical preventive
services among older adults. SPARC promotes public access to services
and strengthens local accountability for service delivery. In 2007,
CDC’s Healthy Aging Program worked with the Atlanta Regional Commission
to guide a SPARC pilot in two Atlanta-area counties. Results show that
SPARC provides a practical and appealing approach to improving the
delivery of preventive services and can galvanize local health care
providers to develop innovative and effective community-tailored
interventions.
New Frontiers for
Public Health in Aging
In 2007, CDC and the Alzheimer’s Association released The Healthy Brain
Initiative: A National Public Health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive
Health (http://www.cdc.gov/aging/roadmap). This publication outlines
specific actions for making cognitive health a major public health issue and
preparing society for dealing with this issue. CDC has several projects
associated with the priority actions outlined in this publication, including
- Supporting the HAN to increase CDC’s understanding of the public’s
needs and beliefs about cognitive health, including those of caregivers
and health care providers.
- Supporting the Alzheimer’s Association to develop and implement
community demonstration projects to increase knowledge and foster
positive attitudes about cognitive health among African American baby
boomers.
- Developing, testing, and implementing a survey to assess and monitor
the public’s beliefs about the impact of cognitive decline at national
and state level to guide policies and programs.
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Future Directions
State and local health departments, the aging services
network, and other groups that serve older adults look to CDC for scientific
and programmatic expertise and to identify and develop strategies that
reduce long-term care needs and preserve health and quality of life for
older adults. In response, CDC and its partners are advancing work in
several areas, including
-
Synthesizing evidence-based information on interventions
and policies that may promote and protect older adult health (including
cognitive and emotional health) with plans to disseminate results
through conferences and to create an inventory of recommendations.
-
Developing measures to assess and monitor critical
issues in aging, such as the impact of cognitive decline, to provide
data at state and local levels.
-
Conducting research on minority populations to identify
health disparities (e.g., examining the health and characteristics of
American Indian and Alaska Native caregivers).
-
Assessing state health departments’ needs, priorities,
and activities related to older adult health to better support
state-based efforts.
For more information please contact
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
4770 Buford Highway NE, Mail Stop K–45, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717
Telephone: 770-488-5464 • Fax: (770) 488-8488
E-mail: cdcinfo@cdc.gov • Web:
http://www.cdc.gov/aging
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Page last reviewed: February 12, 2008
Page last modified: February 12, 2008
Content source: National Center for
Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
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