The oldest members of the baby boomers — those adults born between 1946 and 1964 — are turning 80 this year. One aging expert has more on whether our state is ready for this wave.
Aaron Guest is an assistant professor of aging at Arizona State University. He said while the state has a lot going for it, “We do have a lack of overall providers and a lack of health care opportunities for individuals to access. ... We also know that our older adults tend to have poor nutrition than their peers in other states as well as higher rates of smoking and lower household incomes overall.”
That could lead to more challenges, both for the state and those who are aging here. “And that’s not even considering things such as the effects of the environment on climate change, the availability of jobs, and, quite honestly, the lack of retirement available to many, many people in our society,” Guest said.
A surprising bright spot he said is that Arizona has lower rates of social isolation compared to other states, in part because of the many age-friendly communities that exist.
Interestingly, he said, boomers want more age-segregated communities like Sun City.
“They like to be around people their own age. What we know right now is those upcoming generations [like Gen X] say they want to be an age-integrated communities. And so that’s very different. So what do you do with things like Sun City? What do you do with many of the continuum care retirement communities we have here?”
Guest says boomers are often described as “the pig in the python” — the population bulge that has created lasting impacts on our society and economy.
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