From politics to popular culture, baby boomers exert a profound impact on America. As they enter middle age and retirement, this generation, unprecedented in size, will confront a vast new realm of problems, choices, and decisions. Their needs will make the "graying of America" the most significant demographic event of our time. As a resource fitted to such an event, Aging: Lifestyles, Work, and Money, provides a definitive, comprehensive source of information about people aged 65 years and older. The information is indexed and included under easy-to-follow headings, allowing the reader to locate facts quickly and as needed, or browse and encounter valuable information serendipitously. More than 180 tables, graphs, and charts provide carefully selected information on: Marital status Living arrangements Family life Geographic location and geographic mobility Transportation and housing Community life Social activity Leisure Crime Citizenship Language Education Income and poverty Finances-assets, savings, debt, and attitudes consumer spending Work and retirement Social Security Vierck and Hodges not only provide exhaustive coverage of vital statistics (including many previously unpublished features), but also offer analytical support--describing trends, offering insights, and providing a framework for understanding the data. This volume is ideally suited to the elderly whose concerns it investigates, as well as to medical and nursing libraries, and anyone interested in the manifold issues associated with the elderly. It includes a bibliography, a listing of Web sites, and an appendix listing world records and fascinating facts, providing a record of some extraordinary achievements of theelderly.

The "graying of America" is perhaps the most significant demographic event of recent times. Health care and nutrition have improved, and baby boomers reaching middle age and retirement will influence American society both now and in the years to come. Vierck and Hodges present vital statistics on aging Americans in a readable and interesting format, describing trends, offering insights, and providing a framework for understanding the data. More than 250 tables, graphs, and charts provide carefully selected and presented information on: - The size and growth of the older population - Life expectancy - Health risks and practices - Nutrition - Chronic conditions and common health problems among the aged - Mental health - Prescription and over-the-counter drugs - Long-term care (both home and nursing home) - Hospice care - Death - Paying for health care This book includes many previously unpublished data sources, and Vierck and Hodges offer analytical support to clarify the vast amount of information. Comprehensive analyses, for example, were conducted on newly available nursing home, home health care, and hospice care data, and an extensive interpretation of nutrition data by Kris Hodges provides new perspectives on the nutritional status of the elderly. The book, divided into 16 chapters on different aspects of aging and health, will be useful to gerontologists, geriatricians, health policy analysts, researchers, librarians and information specialists, marketing professionals, journalists, students, and others doing research on aging, health, and health services.