The Times Poll : Most Older Persons Say They’re Happy With Lives

Old age is not nearly as bad as Americans have come to fear. In fact, the older people get, the happier they are, according to a nationwide survey by The Times Poll.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 65 and over are quite pleased with the way things are going in their personal lives. In contrast, only about half of the people between the ages of 18 and 49 say that they are very satisfied with their lives.

The older people are, the less concerned they are about money or retirement, the less likely they are to be lonely or depressed and the less fearful they are of disease or death, the poll found.

People in their middle years, between 50 and 64, also tend to be more satisfied with their lives than are America’s youth but they are by no means as sanguine as are the elderly.

This portrait of life getting better as a person gets older contradicts many notions Americans have of old age as a period of desolation and desperation, said Dr. Robert N. Butler, former director of the National Institutes on Aging and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Why Survive? Being Old in America.”

And because of the rapid growth of America’s elderly population, the notion that life keeps improving with age--that old age is neither a threat nor a burden--has broad implications for policy decisions into the next century.

At the beginning of this century, less than 1 in 10 Americans was 55 and older; only 1 in 25 was 65 and over. Now, 1 in 5 Americans is at least 55 and 1 in 8 is at least 65. By the turn of the next century, according to some estimates, a quarter of the entire population in the country will be over the age of 65.

This so-called aging of America, in part, is attributable to declining birth rates but largely is because of an unprecedented rise in average life expectancy, from 47 years at the turn of the century to more than 76 years today, according to Census Bureau data.

The Times Poll, directed by I. A. Lewis, interviewed 3,050 adult Americans by telephone between April 1 and 6. The survey included a national cross-section of 1,484 people between the ages of 18 and 49 and 785 people between the ages of 50 and 94, plus an additional 781 people over the age of 50.

The “oversample” of the middle-aged and elderly was added to provide greater statistical precision to the opinions of the older population. The margin of error for a survey of this size is 3 percentage points in either direction, which means that slight differences of opinion may not be statistically significant.

By a variety of measures, the poll found that older Americans are significantly happier, or at least have less to worry about, than those who are young or middle-aged.

Fewer senior citizens than youths, for example, say that they are lonely. Nearly three times as many old people as young say that they are never depressed. And only 7% of those over the age of 65 say that they have contemplated suicide, while 20% of those between the ages of 18 and 49 say that they have considered taking their own lives.

The elderly are not nearly as fearful as they have been portrayed. Senior citizens, for example, are no more likely than youths or middle-aged people to be afraid of walking alone at night in their own neighborhoods. And, despite rising crime rates in many areas, they are much less afraid today than they were a decade ago.

Also, the closer people get to the ends of their lives, the less likely they are to think about death or to be afraid of it. Nine of 10 people over 65 say that they are not afraid to die, compared to 8 of 10 middle-aged people and 7 1/2 of 10 young people.

The older people are, the younger they say they feel. Three of 4 people over the age of 50 think of themselves as younger than their actual years, whereas 1 of 4 people in their 30s feel younger than their age.

As far as people over the age of 50 are concerned, being 50 or older is the “ideal age” to be. That is in stark contrast to the vast majority of people between 18 and 49 who think that the ideal age is 29 or younger.

Older people have fewer financial worries than younger people, even though most older people are on “fixed” incomes and a higher proportion of them fall below the poverty line.

While almost half of those under 50 report having been worried sometime over the last 12 months that they would not have enough money to pay bills, only about a quarter of those over 65 have had similar concerns.

In general, those 65 and over are pleased with their standard of living--much more so than those who are young and slightly more so than those who are middle aged.

“In one sense,” Lewis explained, “this is a reaffirmation of Social Security. It suggests our system of caring for the elderly is working in this country. But it also suggests that the older you get, the less you need or care so much about material things.”

The findings of The Times Poll may also be a general commentary about recent changes in American life, said Edward L. Schneider, executive director of USC’s Andrus Gerontology Center.

People in the United States today seem to perceive life as being harder economically than it was a few decades ago, and those hardships are having a greater impact on young people, especially those in their 20s and 30s, who are struggling to make ends meet, Schneider said.

“Housing prices are skyrocketing, high paying jobs are becoming scarce, college tuitions are going out of sight and the budget has to be balanced, which may mean higher taxes,” he said.

“For the elderly . . . those are not such important issues. If they are retired, they don’t have to pay much in the way of taxes. If they own their own houses, their mortgages are probably paid off. And their kids are probably already through college, so they don’t have to worry about the rising costs of education,” Schneider added.

But that is not to say that life is always easy for senior citizens.

Although many older people say they are satisfied with their lives, they also acknowledge that they are not having as much fun now as they once did. Nearly half of the people over 65 say they are actually having less fun, whereas that is the case for only about a quarter of people under the age of 50.

Also, the older people get, the less satisfied they are with their health, which is understandable, since the older one gets the more likely one is to have health problems.

According to a 1987-1988 study by the Senate Special Committee on Aging and the American Assn. of Retired Persons, nearly 80% of older Americans experience some sort of chronic health problems. As a result of such ailments as heart disease or hearing loss, the report found, nearly a quarter of the population over 65 and half the population over 85 cannot get by without some form of assistance from their families, from the government or private social-service agencies.

Although recent studies have shown that families--as opposed to the government or private agencies--provide the overwhelming majority of home nursing care to the elderly who need it, only 13% of people over 65 and 17% of middle-aged people think that families should assume such responsibility. In contrast, 30% of young people think that families have the most important obligation to provide long-term nursing care for the elderly.

Even though Medicare does not cover long-term nursing care, a majority of older people think that long-term nursing care should be the responsibility of the government or older people themselves, the survey found.

One of the reasons for these differences in attitudes may be the pride of the elderly and their determination not to become dependent on other people. “If they (the elderly) worry about anything,” Lewis noted, “they worry about becoming a burden on their children.”

More than half of people under 49 think that grown children should be expected to support their aging parents, whereas less than one-third of the elderly think that children ought to assume such responsibilities.

At the same time, however, the overwhelming majority of both the young and the old think that parents’ responsibilities to their children do not necessarily end once the children are grown and leave home.

“Old age is not for sissies . . . “ Lewis concluded.

THE SPECIAL YEARS--A look at life at age 50 and beyond. See special section wrapped inside Calendar.

POSITIVE ATTITUDE

Older people have a more positive outlook on life than younger people.

AGE 18-49 AGE 50+ SATISFIED WITH LIFE Very satisfied 53% 60% Other 46 39 Don’t know 1 1 SATISFIED WITH STANDARD OF LIVING Very satisfied 40% 62% Other 60 38 LONELY Often/seldom 93% 87% Never 5 12 Don’t know 2 1 FREQUENCY OF DEPRESSION Never 4% 13% Seldom 86 78 Often 10 9 NEVER THINK ABOUT SUICIDE 80% 90%

Source: L.A. Times Poll