How we will be able to live a healthier, longer life
Improvements in everything from nutrition to fitness mean that Americans aren’t just living longer — they’re living better, longer. AARP’s Lina Walker discusses the factors that could further close the gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy.
The average American will live to 77-and-a-half-years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s the same age as Cher or Donald Trump, but decades away from Betty White’s 99 birthdays. While a respectably ripe age, about a dozen of our later years are less likely to be healthy ones. But we can do a lot to afford a healthier longevity and it’s not just about having money, says Lina Walker, senior vice president for Global Thought Leadership at AARP. Here’s how and who can help us get there.
Kate MacArthur: How have the financial aspects of living healthier over a longer lifespan evolved?
Lina Walker: The financial aspects related to maintaining health spans haven't changed much because it hasn't increased as fast as lifespan. Estimates from the World Health Organization is that there is almost a 12-year difference between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. And that difference is even larger for women now.
MacArthur: What has changed?
Walker: What we've always known to be true is still true. Healthy diet, regular exercise, healthy weight, no smoking, moderate drinking, all those are important to maintaining healthy lifestyles and healthy longevity. But we are also learning from the research that people need meaning and purpose in their lives. People need social connections and mental stimulation, and you need all those elements together to lead a healthy longevity. Many of those elements don't have to cost very much.
MacArthur: Such as?
Walker: Experience Corps is a volunteer program for people 50 and older, and they volunteer to work with and mentor students. From evaluations, we've seen positive differences both for the students who are getting help, as well as for the 50-plus volunteers. We see improvements in their physical and their mental health, all to say that there are many elements that are necessary for healthy longevity, but not all of them have to cost a lot of money.
MacArthur: How should we determine what is necessary for healthier longevity versus what insurance or Medicare or Medicaid would cover?
Walker: The way we think about our lifespan currently falls into these different stages: the school years, our working years, and then our retirement years. It's tied to what insurance can cover and can't cover. But if we're thinking of a world where people are living much longer, we have to rethink these life stages. Healthy longevity is a lifelong journey.
MacArthur: What exactly needs to change?
Walker: How we think about work, about where we live, what we call the built environment. You've got to think differently about older workers and how you redeploy them, re-skill them, retrain them, and retain them. And people have the opportunity to continue to contribute economically to the workplace if they want to.
MacArthur: What needs to change in the built environment?
Walker: AARP in the U.S. is the independent affiliate of the World Health Organization’s network of age-friendly cities and communities. We need to think about things like sidewalks and traffic lights, simple things like making sure that they have enough time to cross the streets, making sure that there are curb cuts that walkers and wheelchairs and multi-generational families can use the space. Even housing can be different. AARP has done a lot of work on supporting ADUs, or accessory dwelling units, where you have intergenerational co-living arrangements, but the older family member has their separate independent unit living on the property with family members.
“People need social connections and mental stimulation, and you need all those elements together to lead a healthy longevity. Many of those elements don’t have to cost very much.”
MacArthur: What's the most significant shift that people need to think about now?
Walker: Everybody has a role to play. And by everybody, I mean cities, communities, governments, the private sector, as well as individuals. In some ways it's hard to answer that question because it's sort of interrelated, right? People can do more if they live in an environment that's enabling and empowering. AARP is working to advocate for financial security and health security because that's going to be necessary if people are living longer. But you can't do it alone.
MacArthur: How might a longer health span work differently for different populations?
Walker: Millennials are having children much later in life. They're staying in the workforce longer because they have young dependent children in the house. That's definitely something shaping the experience of that generation that's very different from earlier generations.
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