Baby Bummers

Today's fiftysomething is worse off than yesterday's, says a report from the National Bureau of
Economic
Research. Researchers divided 20,000 people into three age groups -- 66 to 71, 60 to 66 and 54 to 59 -- and asked about their health in late middle age. The youngest group reported the worst health at this stage.

The youngest group reported having more pain, chronic health conditions, and drinking and psychiatric problems than people who were the same age 12 years earlier.

Compared with the oldest group, the youngest group was more likely to have reported difficulty in walking, climbing steps, getting up from a chair, kneeling or crouching, and doing other normal daily physical tasks.

Of course, it's possible that the baby boomers are just complaining, orthat the memory of past hardships has diminished with the passage oftime. But what if it's true?

This new analysis provides some initial data raising thequestion of whether today’s pre-retirees could reach retirement age inworse shape than their predecessors, with individuals potentially inpoorer health than current retirees and possibly increasing health carecosts for society. [...]

Researchers and policymakers are vitally interested in whether thistrend will continue, accelerate or decelerate with the retirement ofthe baby boom, a critically important question in planning for health,
housing and other needs of this wave of retirees, who begin to turn 65
in 2011.

Will baby boomers retire in worse shape than predecessors? [press release]