Beeson Scholars Drs. Covinsky and Smith Research on Disability in Old Age
A new study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco―including Beeson Scholars Kenneth E. Covinsky, MD, MPH, and Alexander K. Smith, MD, MS, MPH―combs through 15 years of data to determine disability rates in the final two years of people’s lives. The results have shown that those who live to an older age are likely to be disabled, and thus in need of caregiving assistance, many months or years prior to death. Furthermore, it has shown that women have a substantially longer period of end-of-life disability than men, being more prone to disabling disorders like depression, arthritis, or osteoporosis.
A new study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco―including Beeson Scholars Kenneth E. Covinsky, MD, MPH, and Alexander K. Smith, MD, MS, MPH―combs through 15 years of data to determine disability rates in the final two years of people’s lives. The results have shown that those who live to an older age are likely to be disabled, and thus in need of caregiving assistance, many months or years prior to death. Furthermore, it has shown that women have a substantially longer period of end-of-life disability than men, being more prone to disabling disorders like depression, arthritis, or osteoporosis.
As reported by Paula Span in the New Old Age Blog in the New York Times on July 8, 2013, the research shows that remaining healthy and active until “our bodies fail at advanced ages…has not materialized for most of the elderly. The price we’re paying for extended life spans is a high rate of late-life disability…Knowing this should help us plan for what’s coming―we’ll need better transportation options and senior housing, better insurance programs, better lots of stuff―both as individuals and as members of an aging nation."
Read the full article in the NY Times here. The research was published in JAMA on 7/8/2013; the abstract can be found here.
