According to agestats.gov, by 2030 those over the age of 65 will increase to 73 million or 21% of the US population. As we move on to 2060, the 65+ community will likely surpass 100 million and are expected to be racially and ethnically diverse, better educated, have a lower poverty rate and longer life expectancy. No doubt you can see why they are the driving force for the increase in AgeTech and Age-related services organizations.

For a bit more context, by 2030, this 65+ crown isn’t just post WW2 baby boomers who are well meme’d for yelling ‘hey kid get off my lawn’, not knowing how to adjust their clocks or check voicemail on their cell phone. They are also kids born in the 60’s who were raised with the first color televisions, the first to own/build home computers, and possibly in the height of their careers during the dot com bubble of the nineties. They were instrumental in the rise of IBM, Apple, Microsoft, and had a front row seat for the assassinations of JFK and MLK, first space launch, the scandals of Watergate, the excesses of the 80’s, introduction of the mobile phone, the rise of the internet, and are one of the largest consumers of social media today. Each of these factors are a lens in which they view the world and their place in it. For all the cool things these 65+ year old’s have seen by 2030, they have also seen a significant shift from agrarian to commercialistic society, political international turmoil, an AIDS epidemic, increased environmental/climate shifts and a flow of information like they have never experienced before.

While statistics say life expectancy in the future may be increasing, it does not mean the aging are expected to be are healthier. It is speculated they will see continuing high rates of obesity, heart disease and chronic conditions. Alzheimer’s disease is expected to increase as well as anxiety and depression related to social isolation and loneliness as they are living alone and/or in rural areas with limited services available to them. Finally, ageism concerns will be evident as these once active and engaged members of our communities lose their autonomy and sense of purpose.

Age related health services teams and AgeTech vendors need to embrace new methods of interacting with their aging patients/clients that embrace their intelligence, enable autonomy, and respect their individual age and life experiences. Tailor conversations and interventions for healthcare services that look at both medical and non-medical solutions to further health and wellness. For example:

• Were they born in the 1940’s in a rural area where “you only go to the hospital to die”?
• Does the patient live as part of a culture that prefers homeopathic options such as yoga and meditation for symptom management as the first course of treatment?
• Has your patient outlived their spouse, friends, close family and is in need of as much social and community support as medical interventions?

To me working with and learning about aging populations is about re-thinking how we label and interact with our aging populations in the healthcare community. It is about how clinicians take these richly diverse backgrounds and weave their lives and experiences into their experience with our health systems. We need to re-define outcomes as what is patient appropriate to enable better health and wellness in a meaningful and clinically appropriate way that fits their life’s journey.
Please continue to join us at Sotura Health as we dive into various topics to elevate aging populations and empower clinicians and aging advocates with information and statistics to better serve all of us as we grow older.

Best –
Anna