A new study from the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at the Mailman School of Public Health reveals significant improvements in the health of older adults in England when compared to previous generations. Rather than considering health through the presence or absence of disease, the study, published in Nature Aging, applied a new approach that examined trends in people’s functioning – their cognitive, locomotor, psychological, and sensory capacities.

Using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, the study found that older adults today experience higher levels of physical and mental functioning than previous generations did at the same age.

“These improvements were large,” said John Beard, MBBS, PhD, Irene Diamond Professor of Aging in Health Policy and Management in the Butler Columbia Aging Center of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and author of the study. For example, a 68-year-old born in 1950 had a similar capacity to a 62-year-old born a decade earlier, and those born in 1940 had better functioning than those born in 1930 or 1920. Beard noted, “If we had compared someone born in 1950 with someone born in 1920, we would have likely observed even greater improvements.”

Beard and his colleagues undertook similar analyses in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). They found similar trends, although this analysis was limited by the much shorter follow-up period in the Chinese study compared to the English study.

Beard says that improvements in education, nutrition, and sanitation over the course of the twentieth century are likely to have played a key role. Medical advances—such as joint replacements and better treatments for chronic conditions—were also likely to be contributing factors. The researchers caution, however, that their observations are for a specific period and in a single country. The same trends may not have been seen in the US, or across the whole of the population.

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“We were surprised by just how large these improvements were, particularly when comparing people born after World War Two with earlier-born groups.” said Beard. “But there is nothing to say we will continue to see the same improvements moving forward, and changes such as the increasing prevalence of obesity may even see these trends reverse. It is also likely that more advantaged groups will have experienced greater gains than others. But overall, the trends were very strong and suggest that, for many people, 70 really may be the new 60.”

Aging expert Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois praised the study, stating, “This is a powerful article. It shows that intrinsic capacity—what really matters to people as they age—is inherently modifiable. With this evidence, we see that medical science can enhance intrinsic capacity, providing a hopeful message for the future.”

IMAGE CREDIT: SHVETS production.