Apart from cognitive impairments, the rate of decrease in functional limitations among the elderly has moderated. H. Stephen Kaye concludes that this flattening of trends is “not good news, since it suggests that the number of elderly* people with disabilities will continue to increase” as the size of the elderly population grows faster than the decrease in functional limitations. (Cue ties to the failure and demise of the CLASS Act.)
(Note non-uniform vertical axis scale.)
A similar moderation of decline in disability rates has occurred for the working age population as well.
* I could not find an explicit definition of “elderly” in Kaye’s paper, so I presume it is the standard 65+ years old.
