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Survey reveals more than 80% of older Americans feel good for their health – although two-thirds have more
- In the National Health Interview Survey conducted in 2017, 82% of adults aged 65 to 74 reported that their health was "excellent", "very good" or "good".
- Only 18% rated their health as "fair" or "poor" despite 60% of seniors with multiple chronic conditions
- Health experts say that many adults think that staying healthy means staying active socially and being satisfied with one's life
- It has also been shown that self-rated good health reduces the risk of death.
A survey reveals that most older Americans feel good about their health, despite the fact that two-thirds suffer from multiple chronic diseases.
Data from the National Health Interview Survey conducted in 2017 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 82% of seniors feel their health is "excellent", "very good" or "good".
Only 18% described their health as "fair" or "poor".
However, according to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, about 60% of adults over age 65 have at least two chronic diseases.
These diseases include heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and Alzheimer's disease.
Health experts told Kaiser Health News that many older people consider that good health means that they can remain socially active and be satisfied with their lives rather than their physical condition.
In addition, research has shown that there is a link between self-rated good health and lower mortality risk, which means that thinking that one's health is good can help you live longer.
The National Health Interview Survey conducted in 2017 with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 82% of seniors thought their health was "excellent", "very good" or "good" (image of the file). )
According to the survey, about 18% of adults aged 65 to 74 rated their health as excellent, and 32% described it as very well or well.
In contrast, about 14% said their health was fair and only 4% rated their health as poor.
Dr. Jason Schnittker, professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, told Kaiser Health News that many older people are expecting their health to deteriorate as they get older and the simply consider it part of the natural aging process.
"Older people expect a deterioration in their health and do not shirk the same way when it happens," said Dr. Schnittker.
In a 2008 Swiss study, an 86-year-old woman who needed a cane to move around was saying, "I may be disabled, but I can still walk."
Another disabled man told the researchers that he considered himself healthy because "as long as you can go to the church, as long as you can walk, you can say that everything is fine."
Dr. Schnittker told Kaiser Health News that this does not mean that these adults refuse, but rather that they adapt to the new limits of their body.
According to Ellen Ellen Idler, professor of sociology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, the word "survive" sometimes translates into good health.
In the United States, the average life expectancy is 78.69 years, an increase from 69.77 years in 1960, when many of these seniors were young adults.
"People are between 80 and 90 years old, look around and feel pretty good just being alive," Dr. Idler told Kaiser Health News.
Dr. Idler was co-author of a 1997 journal published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, which examined the link between self-rated health and mortality.
They found that even taking into account medical history and risk factors, poor self-rated health was a predictor of mortality.
Other studies have since replicated the results.
Co-author, Dr. Yael Benyamini, researcher in the fields of health and aging at Tel Aviv University in Israel told Kaiser Health News that one of the reasons for the association is that people who consider themselves to be in good health are better off for themselves and therefore have a longer life span.
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