90 Market Expanding Are You Ready

Hey just bought my 90-year-old mom an Ipad. How are you preparing for a savvy 90+ senior population?

According to the Associated Press, a census report shows that nearly 2 million people now are 90 or over, nearly triple their numbers of just three decades ago. Hey my mom is one of them.

Unfortunately, they're more likely than the merely elderly to live in poverty and to have disabilities, creating a new challenge to already strained retiree income and health care programs. My mom is one of the lucky ones.

The oldest old are projected to increase from 1.9 million to 8.7 million by 2050 -- making up 2 percent of the total U.S. population and one in 10 older Americans. Over a century ago fewer than 100,000 people reached 90. Well if I live I will be 93!

Demographers attribute the increases mostly to better nutrition and advances in medical care. Still, longer life presents additional risks for disabilities and chronic conditions such as arthritis, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. Anticipating a longer life also has financial implications and aging trends suggest that it indeed will be a longer life for many.

An Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll in June found that more than one in four adults expect to live to at least 90, including nearly half of those currently 65 or older. A majority of adults also said they expected people in their generation to live longer than those in their parents' generation, with about 46 percent saying they expected a better quality of life in later years as well.

The share of people 90-94 who report having some kind of impairment is 13 percentage points higher than those 85-89 -- 82 percent versus 69 percent. Among those 95 and older, the disability rate climbs to 91 percent.

North Dakota lead the 90 list, with about 7 percent of its 65-plus population over 90. It was followed by Connecticut, Iowa and South Dakota. In absolute numbers, California, Florida and Texas led the nation in the 90-plus population, each with more than 130,000.

At age 90, the experts say your life expectancy is another five years.

Other findings:

• Among the 90-plus population, women outnumber men by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1.
• Non-Hispanic whites made up the vast majority of the 90-plus population, at 88.1 percent. That's compared to 7.6 percent who were black, 4 percent Hispanic and 2.2 percent Asian.
• Most people who were 90 or older lived in households alone, about 37.3 percent. Some 37.1 percent lived in households with family or others, while about 23 percent stayed in nursing homes. About 3 percent lived in assisted living or other informal care facilities.
• Those who were 90 or older had median income of $14,760, about half of it from Social Security. About 14.5 percent of the age group lived in poverty, compared to 9.6 percent for Americans who are 65-89.

What struck me is that nearly 40 percent of this 90+ population lives alone. And just three percent live in assisted living. Yet what I see when I visit assisted living is a population that is clearly in their 80's if not 90's. That was surprising. I think maybe some of that is economic. Hey if you really need a nursing home it will be paid for one way or another. Not so with assisted living. With so many people at home we need more programs like Lotsa Helping Hands to assist with the home-bound.

Of course these statistics bode well for home health and adult day providers. It would seem the assisted living community has some catching up perhaps embracing assisted living at home as a business venture.

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Stephen Simpson