With nearly four in five older [b]Americans[/b] living with multiple chronic medical conditions, a new study finds that the more ailments you have after retirement age, the shorter your life expectancy. [s]Science Daily[/s] reports that the analysis, one of the first to examine the burden of multiple chronic conditions on life expectancy among the elderly, may help explain why increases in life expectancy among older Americans are slowing. ‘Living with multiple chronic diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease and heart failure is now the norm and not the exception in the USA,’ says lead author Eva DuGoff of the [b]Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health[/b]. ‘The medical advances that have allowed sick people to live longer may not be able to keep up with the growing burden of chronic disease. It is becoming very clear that preventing the development of additional chronic conditions in the elderly could be the only way to continue to improve life expectancy.’
[link url=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140723105951.htm]Full Science Daily report[/link]
[link url=http://journals.lww.com/lww-medicalcare/Abstract/2014/08000/Multiple_Chronic_Conditions_and_Life_Expectancy__A.3.aspx]Medical Care abstract[/link]