PRB

While southern states are regarded as retirement magnets, eight of the 10 states with the highest percentages of older residents are not in the South. What’s driving these regional patterns?

As the large baby boomer population ages, the total number of people with dementia in the United States will rise.

Disability rates are down among older Americans, and more are managing daily life on their own with devices. But racial and ethnic gaps persist.

Experiencing racism damages a person’s health by triggering the release of stress hormones and a chain of biological events that cause premature aging, which in turn increase the risk of chronic disease.

Older Black adults are less likely than their white peers to have private insurance and more likely to rely on Medicaid or Medicare as their only health insurance.

As they age, Black adults experience more rapid decline in the body’s ability to recover from stress or damage, with social and economic factors contributing to this decline.

Black Americans’ higher rates of chronic conditions and disease such as obesity and diabetes, which are linked to fatal COVID-19 infections, may underlie life expectancy differences.

Socioeconomic inequality and racism-related stress are at the root of Black-white health disparities, requiring policies and interventions targeting both economic inequality and exposure to high levels of stress.