Black Americans age 65 and older enjoy shorter active lives than whites do, and more of their late years are hampered by disabilities, researchers have found.

According to a study published in Health Affairs, the disparity with whites is widest for elderly black women, who have seen no gains since the early 1980s in either the number of remaining years of active life or the percentage of time they can expect to remain active – i.e., free of disability.

Life expectancy rose for both blacks and whites from 1982 to 2011, but the improved quality of those lives after age 65 differed based on race, the researchers concluded after reviewing several years of federal health surveys.

“Active life expectancy tells you not just how long people are living, but how well people are living,” said Vicki Freedman, a research professor at the University of Michigan.

Older whites avoided disabilities until later ages: Their life expectancy increased just slightly more than their active-life expectancy. Black seniors’ extended longevity unfolded with shorter delays in disability. Their gain in survival was twice as large as the increase in survival without disability, according to the study.

In 2011, 65-year-old whites could expect 15 of their remaining 20 years to be active, Freeman said. Black seniors could expect only 12 of their remaining 18 years to be active.

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In 2011, a white man of 65 could anticipate living without disability for 82 percent of his remaining years. But a black woman of the same age could expect only 62 percent of her remaining life to be free of disability. From 1982 to 2011, white men showed larger improvements in active-life expectancy than did black men, black women or white women, Health Affairs reported.

Reasons for this racial disparity in old age are probably rooted in differences that began in youth, the authors said. For example, relative to whites, blacks are more likely to have been in worse health and uninsured earlier in life, and to have higher rates of obesity and cardiovascular risk factors.

For Americans in late years, disabilities open a new phase of unmet needs. That experience arrives earlier for blacks.

They reviewed surveys from 2004 through 2011 that captured increases among older blacks who reported such problems as difficulty doing light housework, being unable to do laundry or shop for groceries on their own – even getting in and out of chairs without help.


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