Baby Boomers sicker and frailer than previous generations

Anecdotes are not proof.
Research is not proof.

Even statistics are not absolute proof but are more reliable than anecdotes.

There are too many variables. If another pandemic were to hit then life expectancy could/would go down again.
If breakthroughs are discovered in medicines, life expectancy could go up.

Nothing is certain.

I was born in 1949...am I a Baby boomer?

Allira

Anecdotes are not proof.
Research is not proof.

Even statistics are not absolute proof but are more reliable than anecdotes.

There are too many variables. If another pandemic were to hit then life expectancy could/would go down again.
If breakthroughs are discovered in medicines, life expectancy could go up.

Nothing is certain.

I absolutely agree Allira.

I am now three years older than my mum was when she died and DH is nine years older than his dad was when he died.

What does this prove? Absolutely nothing.

Witzend

IMO anyone’s who’s visited the US since at least the 70s will have seen how junk food available just about everywhere, and very often massive portions, can’t have failed to notice the link with extreme obesity.

On the first morning we very first visited, early 70s, we went to a 24 hour breakfast place. A very fat boy at a nearby table was tucking into an enormous plateful of everything ‘breakfast’ you could think of - including a huge pile of pancakes with a lump of butter the size of a tennis ball on top.

At the time, you rarely saw extremely fat people in the U.K. Can’t say the same now, alas.

Someone posted a video on Facebook of people outside one of our village pubs celebrating some local event and nearly everyone was overweight. I remember years ago looking at how obese people in America were and thinking that we always seem to follow them and hoped we wouldn’t follow them obesity wise, but we have done.

Grandad died at 72 but that was smoking, eating fat bacon and drinking rough cider, dad made it to 85 yrs, I will follow suit, maybe a few yrs more.
As long as I can enjoy life it’s fine, when I stop doing that please switch me off !.

I agree, even statistics are not absolute proof. They can't be because no two journeys along the same path are alike. Like in a forest of thousands of trees, no two leaves are the same. Different times, different circumstances, different people.

Indigo8

Allira

Anecdotes are not proof.
Research is not proof.

Even statistics are not absolute proof but are more reliable than anecdotes.

There are too many variables. If another pandemic were to hit then life expectancy could/would go down again.
If breakthroughs are discovered in medicines, life expectancy could go up.

Nothing is certain.

I absolutely agree Allira.

I am now three years older than my mum was when she died and DH is nine years older than his dad was when he died.

What does this prove? Absolutely nothing.

You are of course, quite right - except that is not the point of the research.

What the research is looking at is the state of health of two different alive and kicking groups of people, one group born before and during the war and one born afterwards. Many in the older group are still alive (I am one).

When the doctors look at the medical records of these two groups of people the younger group are fatter, weaker and sicker than the older group compared age for age.

Here is a link to a more authoratative report on this research project www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news/national/24633554.baby-boomers-living-longer-but-poorer-health-previous-generations/ it includes refernces and details of the report, which has been published in the Journal ^Gerentology' or you could look at this one dentistry.co.uk/2024/10/07/baby-boomers-live-longer-but-are-less-healthy-study-finds/ , whch includes details of the sample ssize.

Thank you for the link MOnica

The guy who set up this study is Professor George Ploubidis. He is the Principal Investigator for the 1958 National Child Development Cohort (NCDS) which includes me and tens of thousands of others.
My current health status is different from that of every other person in this study, just as my parents' health status was different from that of my contemporaries' parents.
When you put all the data the study has collected into the melting pot, you see trends and changes, but no more than you would expect with the advancement in medical science. For example, by the age of 44, 2 in 5 of us were taking some form of prescribed medication, some of which was not even available to our parents' generation. That's why you can't measure like for like and draw definitive conclusions.

So according to mr Google a Baby boomer is someone born between 1946 and 1964
So as I was born before 1946 as you were too I believe Monica what are we?

I’m reading the research and your comments, but haven’t reached a conclusion. I was born in 1947, had regular 3 meals/day. Cereal for breakfast,sandwich &/fruit for lunch and meat & veg for dinner (supper). We only had pudding on Sunday, after our roast, which was probably apple pie & custard. There were no crisps. My Dad (born 1910) used to bring a few sweets home as a treat on Friday. We didn’t eat between meals and walked everywhere. However, my lovely Dad was always of light to average build and stopped smoking in his late 60s (probably too late 🥲), and did not drink alcohol much. My Mum, born in 1914, didn’t drink or smoke and lived until she was 89, although with complications after a car accident. I’m now 77 and weigh 8 stone. I cook from scratch, with the occasional fish ‘n chips and lunch or dinner out. My only lapse, I feel, is my love of wine.🤷🏻‍♀️🥂 I exercise, garden walk our dog, volunteer.

BlueBelle

So according to mr Google a Baby boomer is someone born between 1946 and 1964
So as I was born before 1946 as you were too I believe Monica what are we?

We're the Silent Generation Bluebelle
We should be seen and not heard. 😂🤫

Allira

BlueBelle

So according to mr Google a Baby boomer is someone born between 1946 and 1964
So as I was born before 1946 as you were too I believe Monica what are we?

We're the Silent Generation Bluebelle
We should be seen and not heard. 😂🤫

We were described as 'War babies'. The description was in use throughout our childhoods and into the 1960s.

The term was extended in use to cover anyone born before the war who was still a child in 1945.

Bluebelle

The silent generation (age 77-94) is often characterised as thrifty, respectful, unassuming, and loyal. Baby boomers (age 58-76) are portrayed as demanding, self-assured, independent, and competitive

Poverty plays the biggest part in health inequality regardless of your birth decade.

allira thanks that’s me thrifty, respectful, unassuming and loyal 😀

I'm not particularly healthy, but I have lived 13 years longer than both my father and my grandfather who both only just made it to retirement.

I am on the cusp of the baby boomers/generation X. I am somewhat sceptical of these findings. There have always been outliers in every generation for one reason or another, both for good or bad. My grandparents worked hard, but were elderly by fifty, old by sixty - they made themselves that way. All had false teeth at the earliest opportunity. One grandfather died before he was seventy, the other at 82. My grandmothers lived to 88 and 90 respectively. All were overweight. My dad died just short of his 78th birthday, but my mum is still very fit and healthy at 82. I don’t think anyone has mentioned smoking yet, which was rife throughout most of the twentieth century. Thankfully, far fewer people smoke nowadays, although l know l, as a lifelong asthmatic, suffered from second hand smoke when I was younger. A large part of the problem with the NHS is that when it was set up in 1948, it was based on the population of the time, which was around a fifth smaller than that of today and had a much lower life expectancy. There were far fewer treatments available than there are today, too, and they were far more rudimentary in comparison, too. A good example is the treatment for asthma, which has been revolutionised in my lifetime. When I was a child, there was hardly any treatment for it and what there was was pretty ineffective. Now l rarely need my blue inhaler (and I had my first blue inhaler when I was fifteen in 1980) because the preventative inhaler is so good - it also contains a long acting reliever. Vaccines mean that diseases which were once common and all too often fatal are mostly a distant memory. My grandfather told me that he had scarlet fever when he was seven, which would have been around 1920. He was allowed to stay at home rather than being sent to a fever hospital and was in the same room for three weeks. After he had recovered, everything in the room was fumigated and destroyed. As for obesity, which is a serious health problem, there are many reasons for it and it is far more complex than “eat less, move more.” UPF is only part of the problem. Many of us have medical conditions, where weight gain is a constant issue. Again, there are more of us living with these conditions for longer because the medications allow us to. Many medications themselves can cause weight gain. Many people are living far longer than their forebears, but many are not living better. Dementia is the big scourge of our time and the reason there are so many more people who have it is because we are living longer and the medications are enabling this. Catch 22.

BlueBelle

allira thanks that’s me thrifty, respectful, unassuming and loyal 😀

And we're very quiet too!

I'm not sure there was a question in this post.

My opinion is that my parents/pils generation and my/my husbands generation seem far healthier than most people born after around 1948. Then another healthy group born after 1975.

Just my opinion based on my family and friends health.

I had scarlet fever in the 1950s but didn’t have to isolate. I think I stayed away from school for about a week. Probably spread it everywhere! Same with measles. My mum sent me back to school but they sent me home again because I still had a rash. I had to walk a couple of miles home with it on my own. I remember having a dreadful headache and watery eyes. Tough on kids in those days . I’m still here,though!

@nanna8, I am guessing that the introduction of antibiotics and increased standard of living for many people between the 1920s and the 1950s may have been the reason that treatment for scarlet fever may have changed.

How many times do I have to point out that this research has got absolutely nothing to do with longevity.

Threads are free to go where they will so do continue to discuss longevity. As it is not relevant to my OP. I will cease to contribute.

M0nica

How many times do I have to point out that this research has got absolutely nothing to do with longevity.

Threads are free to go where they will so do continue to discuss longevity. As it is not relevant to my OP. I will cease to contribute.

Crumbs!

I presume everyone is free to continue if they wish?