A rising generation of technology-savvy senior citizens will rely on e-mail, digital cameras, computers and other high-tech aids to help them cope with the frailties of old age, a Case Western Reserve University sociologist predicts.

In addition to being avid health care consumers, these "new elderly" will be concerned with maintaining physical fitness and personal appearances-with cosmetic surgery and other enhancements-and are likely to seek self-improvement through education and spiritual growth.

Because they are healthier and likely to live longer, senior citizens of the future also will often work past retirement age-well into their 70s and 80s, according to Eva Kahana, the leading author on the article "Emerging Lifestyles and Proactive Options for Successful Aging," in Ageing International.

"As time has gone on, we have realized that the elderly of tomorrow are going to be different from the elderly of today," said Kahana, who for 15 years has been studying 1,000 retirees-many of whom are now in their late 80s and 90s-from Cleveland and the retirement community of Clearwater, Fla.

Using extensive information provided by the retirees, Kahana has designed a model to show how people can age successfully while coping with the chronic illness and physical impairments common among elderly. She now will test her theories on the new emerging lifestyles of older Americans with a five-year, $1.68 million grant from the National Institute on Aging.

Since many of the seniors in her original study have died or are approaching the end of their life spans, Kahana is broadening the focus of her research to include the next generation of the country's older Americans. She will add more than 800 people who are now in their 70s to her original study.

Some of the new study participants are from the "wired" community of Celebration, Fla., an intergenerational and racially diverse community built by Disney World, as well as new senior groups from Miami, which has a robust population of elderly Cuban-Americans, and Cleveland. Kahana will compare this new group to the remaining 250 individuals from her original groups from the Clearwater and Cleveland studies.

Kahana notes that Celebration offers a unique opportunity to look at the impact of technology on the lives of the elderly. In Celebration, every home is wired for the Internet, and people living in the community can use e-mail in a variety of ways from chatting socially to wiring blood pressure readings to the doctor to ordering groceries from the store.

While Clearwater is an age-segregated and leisure-oriented community of retirees, Kahana said Celebration offers an age and racially diverse community as well as one that offers access to employment opportunities at nearby Disney World for seniors who want to continue working.

In studying the characteristics of aging, sociologists have to determine which characteristics are due to the natural aging process and which are produced by the socioeconomic times in which people lived, according to Kahana.
For example, older adults are often known for their frugality, but Kahana questions whether this is a characteristic of aging or of coming into adulthood during the depression and World War II. Her new study will enable her to answer these and other aging and generational questions.

Her co-collaborators on the journal article are Boaz Kahana from Cleveland State University and Kyle Kercher from Case.

Return to the online edition of the 9-18-03 Campus News.