Baby boomers unhealthier than their parents' generation, study says

Baby boomers are in poorer health than their parents' generation despite major improvements in medicine, according to new research.

A new study finds that despite living longer than previous generations, boomers are less active and have more health woes than their parents faced.

"Despite their longer life expectancy over previous generations, U.S. baby boomers have higher rates of chronic disease, more disability and lower self-rated health than members of the previous generation at the same age," wrote the study's authors, led by Dr. Dana E. King, professor and chair of family medicine at West Virginia University in Morgantown.

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Not Enough Doctors for Baby Boomers

Baby boomers refer to the 78 million American children born after World War II between 1946 to 1964, about 26 percent of the U.S. population at that time. Other studies have shown increasing life expectancy with future generations, and this may be due to significant improvements in medicine seem during baby boomer's lifetimes. However, this does not mean they are living healthier.

To find out how boomers' health compared to that of previous generations, King and his team compared data from a government survey of health and nutrition collected from 2007 to 2010 for baby boomers and from 1988 and 1994 that measured the health of their parents' generation. Participants were matched based on their ages when the surveys were collected, with an average age of about 54 years.

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Researchers found almost 39 percent of baby boomers were obese, compared to about 29 percent of adults in the previous generation. Boomers were also more inactive, with 52 percent of them reporting a sedentary lifestyle with no physical activity, compared with only 17.4 percent of the previous generation. Baby boomers were also more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol than their parents. Overall, 32 percent of adults in the previous generation reported they were in "excellent" health, compared with only 13 percent of baby boomers.

"About half of people 20 years ago said they exercised regularly, which meant three times a week, and that rate now is only about 18 percent," King told NPR. "That's an astonishing change in just one generation."

King expressed concern to HealthDay that boomers may be relying too much on medication to solve their health problems, when he said the drugs should be used in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle, not instead of one.

However, not all was bleak for the boomers: They are less likely to smoke cigarettes than their parents, and were less likely to have emphysema or a heart attack, the study -- which was published Feb. 4 in JAMA Internal Medicine -- found.

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America's health ratings: Living longer, but sicker

The study adds to evidence that while Americans are living longer these days, they may be living sicker. The 2012 America's Health Rankings reported upticks in risk factors that drive chronic diseases, such as obesity and inactivity.

Nationwide, more than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, raising their risk for coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke, breathing problems and certain types of cancers.

"Given the link between positive healthy lifestyles and subsequent health in this age group, the present study demonstrates a clear need for policies that expand efforts at prevention and healthy lifestyle promotion in the baby boomer generation," the study concluded.

[sabniz]

why baby boomers are sicker than their parents? the answer is in the food changes and soft drink changes since 1946, with more fast foods, processed foods, and every junks available since then. people who keep eating those junk foods or keep drinking those diet/regular sodas or soft drinks throughout those years are in fact getting sicker, as obesity rate and diabetes rate going way up since then.

blame on food producers, makers and companies like Coke or Pepci, for all those sickness that many boomers are having!

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

Yeah.
It has nothing to do with majority being lazy sloths.....

[Nate650]

FormerUSMCSergeant, lack of exercise is definitely part of the problem, but what do you think has changed more in the last 100 years, food or exercise patterns?

[kenodenis]

Baby Boomers are caught in the sandwich; i.e. caring for their aging parents and their struggling adult-children, all while trying to handle their own lives. I, for one, can tell you that I don't have the stamina that my mother had back when she was 65. But her set of circumstances were very different than mine.

[skeezix06]

Our parent's one income family that brought home more spending money than current two parent families translating to lack of money to pay bills. Constant stress and pressure from employers trying to squeeze that last little drop of profit out of their employees. Those who work at a desk may find they spend a lot more than 8 hours a day at that desk making it difficult to find the energy to exercise. Constant pressure to update education or skills, frequently on your own time and using your limited funds to pay for it. Inability to afford actual medical care even when you have insurance. With two working parents, fast food or frozen food being put on the table due to lack of time and/or exhaustion.

That's just some of the reasons baby boomers are unhealthier than their parents. Unless things change it's going to be even worse by the time the younger generations get to our age, if they manage to live that long. I wouldn't start patting yourselves on the back too quickly just because you're younger, guys. They aren't going to exempt you from this killer regimen.

[skeezix06]

The numbers don't lie, askagain. Taking inflation, wage erosion over the last 30 years, and all the other variables into consideration, we really do have less spending money than our parents even with the current two income household.

[w_roos]

Why? Why not considering the difference in lifestyle?

[Nate650]

This is mainly a result of the drastic changes the food industry has undergone over the last 100 years. People seem to underestimate how big of a role food plays, and I don't understand why since it's the only thing we directly and purposely put in our bodies 3 times a day. Most food today is highly processed and contains unhealthy industrial ingredients such as trans fat, high fructose corn syrup, artificial preservatives, and refined vegetable oils. People used to drink raw, whole milk from grass fed cows. Now most people drink lowfat milk which has been ultrapasteurized and comes from grain-fed cows. People were told to switch to refined vegetable oils from traditional fats like butter. It's very sad that most people have no idea what a healthy diet is due to the government and medical professionals spewing out bad information for the last several decades. So many people turn to complicated diets when all they really need to do is eat whole, unprocessed foods and everything else falls into place. Not only does weight management occur naturally with such a diet, but you get the added benefit of feeling better and being healthier rather than just looking better.

[hypnotoad72]

Or, rather, one of many POSSIBLE causes.

Some of which are beyond peoples' control as things currently stand to be, and that doesn't help matters...

[foo8259]

No wonder, all the bad diet advice from our government, and pharmaceutical ads always on the TV for the preventable conditions it causes.

[Nate650]

Bingo.

[hypnotoad72]

Government is bought and paid for by the lobbyists that want to put people on meds and everything else.

But government could stop bowing down to lobbyist and corporatist influence.

Government in of itself is not the problem, especially as it puts out big posters saying how to eat, wanting to remove junk food vending machines out of schools, with people mewling "socialism!" in response to that... it's as if those people want everyone to get fat and die.

BTW: Look up how much government subsidizes red meat and dairy (and politicians using farms as a crutch to exploit for $250,000 or so), as opposed to how little it subsidizes vegetable farmers...



Feel free to say "bingo" to me for taking the next step in looking for "blaming symptom vs looking for root cause".

[RobertVBrand]

The proposed chained Cola for SS payment says we can eat cheaper by substituting, therefore don't need a true Cost of Living Adjustment. Dog food for fatty hamburger maybe? Doctors say eat healthier; Congress says eat cheaper. That'll kill off the baby boomers earlier and save Social Security.

[hypnotoad72]

But we live in a free country and a free market, where government doesn't influence and can't be influenced, so what you say is a total and complete lie.

Do note, some of my response is indeed loaded with dripping amounts of sarcasm... :)

[zebra8835]

Kids used to play ball, ride bikes and run through the neighborhood. Many sit in the air conditioning with a game controller today. Yesterday you went to work at the factory, put in your years and retired with a solid pension and health care for life. Your life then was secure and you never "worried," will I have a job tomorrow? Stress, super sized portions and the global economy translate into a less healthier society. No one really knows the effect of eating "modified" foods over the long term. Many chemicals act as artificial hormones that the human body is sensitive to in parts per billion.

Reducing portion sizes and exercise is the best medicine along with eating as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible and try to rest well.

Now that we're in the global economy we can't turn the clock backward.

[hypnotoad72]

They still do.

Or, rather, at the nearby school the kids are all running around and playing during recess...

The erroneously termed "global economy" and the lower wages we see while costs to move forward (e.g. education, good food,etc) keep going up... and a thousand tangents therein...

For, in a real and legitimate global economy, if a flood takes out all the hard drive manufacturing companies in Asia, all the hard drive manufacturing companies in the rest of the world would compensate and prevent price spikes, lost productivity from companies having to wait, and everything else.

The current "global economy" is a redistribution of wealth - from workers (all of us) to a select few manipulators.

Granted, that is a very simplistic explanation, but it's more than what some would provide.