March 7, 2005
MILLION DOLLAR GEEZERS:
Ageism said to erode care given to elders (Alice Dembner, March 7, 2005, Boston Globe)
Older patients often suffer needlessly from cancer, depression, and heart disease because society's age bias gets in the way of treatment, according to a growing body of research.Patients over 65 typically get less aggressive treatment for cancer than younger patients, less preventive care for high blood pressure and cholesterol, and double the dose they need of some psychiatric medicines, studies show.
While they represent the majority of patients with chronic illnesses and the major users of prescription drugs, they are frequently passed over for tests of new treatments and medicines, leaving doctors with little of the evidence they need to care for seniors properly.
''There is a persistent bias . . . that works against the best interests of older Americans," said Daniel Perry, executive director of the Alliance for Aging Research, a nonprofit based in Washington that advocates for improvements in the health of aging Americans.
As the Academy Awards showed this year, media and intellectual elites think the ill should be killed and peddle such messages to the masses--hardly surprising the old get treated like they're already dead. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 7, 2005 8:36 AM
This attitude will change once the Boomers cease being the age when they will inherit anything from the death of their parents and become old enough to be the ones who die. Then, no doubt, we will be subjected to messages on the necessity of keeping older people alive and in the best health possible.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at March 7, 2005 10:35 AM