Longevity "Not A Threat"

Professor Raymond Tallis of the University of Manchester upset some gloomy theories in an address to a British Association Science festival in Salford on 12 Aug 03.

"Nearly two thirds of the increase in longevity in the history of the human race has occurred since 1900." (Daily Telegraph, 13 Aug.03). "But he said the ageing population was, paradoxically, not a threat to sustainable health care because the amount of dependency and disability before death declined the longer someone lived. 'People enter old age in better nick nowadays,' Professor Tallis said. 'The vast majority of old people are in good health and enjoying a quality and style of life that their predecessors would have found unimaginable.

'The proportion of men over 85 who were unable to perform four activities of daily living fell from 45 per cent in 1976 to 18 per cent in 1994. There are equally encouraging data from the United States... Particularly gratifying was the marked decline in the age-adjusted risk of dementia,' he said."