FACTOIDS

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Physical & Mental Health

• According to a Yale University study, simply feeling upbeat about getting older, even at age 50, is linked on average to seven more years of life. Source: Good Housekeeping ("Four Ways to Live Longer"), March 2009 Issue.


• Dr. Marion Jacobs, a clinical psychologist and author of Take-Charge Living: How to Recast Your Role in Life...One Scene at a Time, says that many New Year's resolutions fail "because people assume they have to be ready for a change before they make it. In reality, the only thing that convinces the brain that it is O.K. to change is to see it change." Source: The New York Times ("New Year, New You? Nice Try"), 01/01/09.


• Dr. James Fries, a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine who studies aging athletes says, "Being a late bloomer is an advantage. Most lifelong athletes peak at a young age and then spend the rest of their careers trying to delay the effects of aging. Not so for a novice.... Take, for example, someone who starts training for marathons at age 60. She'll never be as fast at 70 as a 25-year old marathon runner. But thanks to the 'plasticity of aging,' older athletes who train seriously can delay physical declines, so she will be much faster than she was at 60." Source: The New York Times ("A Second Wind is Blowing"), 02/05/09.


• "Happiness is more contagious than previously thought. . . . Emotions have a collective existence--they are not just an individual phenomenon," says a new study that followed a large group of people for 20 years. (Translation: Our moods ripple outward. It's not just us that we're affecting when we're unhappy.) Source: The New York Times ("Strangers May Cheer You Up, Study Says"), 12/07/08.


• "Community colleges are a front line in helping baby boomers prepare for meaningful work in the second part of their lives," says Marc Freedman, CEO of Civic Ventures. Source: The New York Times ("More Second Acts in American Lives"), 10/23/08.


• "The number of graduate students older than 50 grew by 38 percent between 2001 and 2005...according to the National Center for Education Statistics." Source: The New York Times ("Older, and Wiser, Students"), 10/23/08.


• "[A]dministrators at Johns Hopkins University, Dartmouth College and the University of Oklahoma estimate that at least 10 percent of their graduate liberal arts students are over 55 or retired. At Harvard University Extension School, about 16 percent of 484 candidates for the master of liberal arts degree are over 50." Source: The New York Times ("Older, and Wiser, Students"), 10/23/08.


• Americans grow more joyful over time, according to University of Chicago sociologists who studied more than 30 years' worth of data. The longer we live and the more experiences we have, the easier it is to find common ground with others. Source: Shape Magazine ("Want to Live to 100? Read This!"), 8/08


• Blue Zones author Dan Buettner, citing University of Maryland research, says: "One thing stood out in every group of centenarians I met— there wasn't a grump in the bunch." Buettner adds that laughter doesn't just reduce worry. It also relaxes blood vessels, lowering the risk of heart attack. Source: Shape Magazine ("Want to Live to 100? Read This!"), 8/08


• "Select your friendships carefully," says Buettner. "Gather people around you who will reinforce your lifestyle." According to Buettner, Okinawans, some of the world's longest-living people, have a tradition of not just forming strong social networks (called moais) but also nurturing them. Source: Shape Magazine ("Want to Live to 100? Read This!"), 8/08


• "Across the board, those living the longest had a clear sense of purpose," says Buettner. "You have to know why you get up every morning." Source: Source: Shape Magazine ("Want to Live to 100? Read This!"), 8/08


• Long-term studies have pinpointed exercise as the single most potent predictor of healthy longevity, in women as well as in men. Source: The New York Times ("Living Longer, in Good Health to the End"), 8/25/08.


• In a groundbreaking study of male nursing home residents that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researcher Maria Fiatarone Singh concludes that simply by exercising on leg machines three times a week for 15 minutes each, participants' average leg strength increased by more than 174 percent. Two of the men who had walked with canes no longer needed them. "The muscles of older people," Singh says, "are just as responsive to weight lifting as younger people's." Source: Washington Post ("Going for the Gold"), 8/17/08.


• A 2001 study co-sponsored by George Washington University and the N.E.A. found that people 65 and older who were regularly involved in participatory arts programs reported fewer doctors' visits, less need for medication and were less prone to depression. Source: The New York Times ("Retirees Discover A Place to Foster Their Inner Artist"), 9/10/06.


• The brain improves the more we challenge it. "Use it or lose it," says Dr. Richard Restak, an eminent neuropsychiatrist who has written extensively on the brain. Source: The New York Times ("Books on Health: Now A Personal Trainer for Your Brain"), 1/8/02.

Political Voice

• According to the United National Development Fund for Women, women account for 18.4 percent of parliament members worldwide. Quotas have proved instrumental: In the 2007 elections, women in countries with some form of electoral quota captured 19.3 percent of the seats as opposed to 14.7 percent in countries without such quotas. Source: The New York Times ("U.N. Study Finds More Women in Politics"), 9/18/08.

Population Trends

• More than a quarter of the American work force is age 50 and over, according to federal labor statistics. In other words, "more people are deciding the hobbies-and-leisure retirement model isn't for them." Source: The New York Times ("More Second Acts in American Lives"), 10/23/08.


• The fastest-growing segment of the population consists of people over 85. Source: The New York Times ("Living Longer, in Good Health to the End"), 8/25/08.


• The latest Census projection, made in 2003, predicts a centenarian population of 1.1 million in 2050. That's up from a projection made a few years earlier of 834,000. Source: The Wall Street Journal ("Counting 100 Year Old Can Be Tricky, Even for Hallmark"), 4/14/08.


• According to a 2006 US Census Bureau report, 20 percent of women ages 40 to 44 have no children, double the level of 30 years ago. Source: The New York Times ("More Women Than Ever Are Childless, Census Finds"), 8/18/08.


• The nation's centenarians are concentrated on both U.S. coasts, with about 10 percent of the total number living in California and 8 percent making their homes in New York. Source: U.S. Census Bureau ("Centenarians in the United States").

Retirement & Money

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that continuing to work full time past one's anticipated retirement date could increase annual retirement income by about 7 percent for each additional year of work. Source: USA Today ("Laboring Longer a Growing Trend for Americans"), 9/2/08.


• "The newest trend in senior living is a migration back to areas near colleges and universities---and not just to existing homes but to entire new [retirement] communities. Source: Time ("Age Is No Barrier"), 09/22/97.


• "At Boston-based Elderhostel, a global network of educational and cultural institutions that offer 10,000 travel programs to voyagers 55 and older, participation as soared from 220 travelers in 1975" to more than 160,000 every year. Clients are as old as 100. Source: Time ("Age Is No Barrier"), 09/22/97.


• The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 29 percent of people in their late 60s were working in 2006, up from 18 percent in 1985. In 2007, nearly 6 million workers were 65 or older. Source: USA Today ("Laboring Longer a Growing Trend for Americans"), Sept. 2, 2008.

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