Daily HealthBeat Tip

Money helps

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A study finds that, the more money people have, the less likely they are to have a disability.

The study looked at the abilities of Americans ages 55 to 84 to do common things like walking and bathing. The report in the New England Journal of Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Retirement Research Foundation.

As in previous studies, the very poor were worst off. But Esme Fuller-Thomson of the University of Toronto says that, while disability was less common as income rose, it didn’t go away:

"Now, they were small differences, but they were still significant. In other words, the near-rich are at a disadvantage in comparison to the rich." (seven seconds)

Fuller-Thomson and co-author Meredith Minkler say keeping older people out of poverty can help their health. So can controlling weight, exercising, and not smoking.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 10, 2006

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