NYTimes: Illness More Prevalent Among Older Gay Adults

[marginlized]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/health/research/05gay.html?hpw

"Older gay and bisexual men — ages 50 to 70 — reported higher rates of high blood pressure, diabetes and physical disability than similar heterosexual men, according to the researchers. Older gay and bisexual men also were 45 percent more likely to report symptoms of psychological distress and 50 percent more likely to rate their health as fair or poor."

"Older lesbian and bisexual women experienced similar rates of diabetes and hypertension compared with straight women of their age, but reported significantly more physical disabilities and psychological distress and were 26 percent more likely to say their health was fair or poor."

None of this is news. I tend to think that when the only social/community outlets you may have are bars where everyone drinks, it's not surprising that some people end up with a drinking habit. When you're acculturated to think your life is over at 40 or 30 or 25, some people don't care what happens to them after that.

But while I'm right smack in the middle of that older male demographic age wise, I don't share any of the physical problems mentioned in this article. So this doesn't speak to me personally. The frustrating part for me is that, looking at aging, the same social inequalities and prejudices that I've dealt with all along persist in older communities. Do I really want to be part of any traditional retirement community? NO. I have every motivation to be around people who are 30 years my junior.

And while I know there are retirement communities that cater to lgbt people, they are few and very new still, and there's usually a premium on membership. What frustrates me is that I've been part of a community that has been more or less forced to create space for themselves through out life. I guess I'm still looking for some of that creativity to be applied to retirement and aging.

[CountAllVotes]

1. I'm with you, I don't like the idea of over 50 housing either

Hopefully neither of us will ever end up in one of these "gated communities" as them are sometimes disguised as being.

I'd rather be around younger people too! Getting old is not as bad as I'd feared but it isn't great either!

on edit: didn't realize this was the GLBT forum.

[xfundy]

4. OH MY GOD, YOU'VE BEEN INDOCTRINATED! ~~~~

Does it actually matter which forum it is? Gay people are people, too.

[CountAllVotes]

5. gee I hope not!

:rofl:

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. Screw it. Where the F is that damned kleenex box. nt

[starroute]

6. Can we get some geek retirement communities to go along with your glbt ones?

One of my nightmares is having to spend my old age among reality show fans and bingo players.

[TheWraith]

16. That seems like it would be an inducement to cut short your retirement, if you get my drift.

:rofl:

[FreeState]

2. I think stress and stigmatization really have an effect on health

When you look at any minority in America their health tends to be less than the average. Im sure that wont stop the homophobes from misusing this date to try and sway public opinion their way, rather than being moral and using it to dictate a plan to improve the health of LGBT citizens.

Incase someone is looking or it here is the Governments website on Minority health:

http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/

[msongs]

3. much higher smoking rate as well in gay men nt

[Scottybeamer70]

7. I guess they forgot

to talk to a few of us. I'm going on 72........have never been sick, and take NO meds.
Thank goodness I forgot to be included in their little research party.

[marginlized]

11. Good for you Scotty

I know a couple of guys here, they've been together over 20 years, both in their 70's, and they're constantly training for half marathons. They must do 3 to 4 a year. So those researcher's averages do not begin to tell the whole story.

[Smarmie Doofus]

9. I'm trying to resolve this in my own mind these days.

>>>“The gay culture tends to be youth-driven, and the aging community network doesn’t usually think about gay and lesbian elders,” he said.>>>>


As the time draws nearer. The other variable ( in addition to all of the other grim data ) is that glbt retirees generally cannot afford to live in traditional meccas like NYC and San Francisco, especially if they're single.

Warmed-over-death places, traditionally ok for generic retirees ( south Fla, for instance), seem to lack the requisite community, intellectual life and ambience ( I realize a lot of this stuff is subjective.).


More and more I'm thinking "smaller, university towns." But where?

[Festivito]

10. If I may, could AIDS have taken the healthier element during their youth?

The fit in their twenties would have been more available for sexual contact, and would have thereby been more available to acquire AIDS. By now, they are gone and statistics such as the one in the OP then arise naturally.

Those experiencing the rise of AIDS around the unknowing eighties in their twenties would now be in their fifties and sixties.

I hope I've stated this somewhat sensitively.

My concern is that the RW will try to enhance their divisive arguments, in this case, gay marriage, with denigrating statistics such as the one posed in this article.

[marginlized]

12. This plays into it...

Any time you remove half to two thirds of a population, you're skewing the results. And that's how I personally see it: half to two thirds of adult males I knew in the 80's, gone. Exactly HOW that changes demographics, who knows? And, of course, the skewed mortality rates of gay men have already been used by mis information engines such as NARTH.

But as I mentioned in the OP, I think the larger effects are from possibly stress related habits such as smoking.

[Festivito]

13. Regardless of relative impact, both work in combination. Good luck. /nt

[yardwork]

15. Lesbians are among the lowest at risk for HIV.

Stress has been demonstrated to play a role in health disparities experienced by African Americans in the U.S. There's good reason to believe that the persistent, life-long stress of living as a disenfranchised minority has negative impacts on the health of GLBTQ people. If we begin to see some of these institutional discriminations removed and GLBTQ people are allowed the same freedoms, rights, and privileges afforded to every non-GLBTQ person in the U.S., then we will probably see a lessening of the disparities in health status.

[beyurslf]

14. Many things contibute to this: stress, mental health, family life all from being gay and the stigma

from that. I think gay bars are often one of the only ways for gay people to meet (especially in the past before the internet). Drug use and drinking contribute. Smoking rates are higher. HIV/AIDS is a factor. As far as how we self-report our health, I think we are tough on ourselves and report harshly.

[TheWraith]

17. I think that you may have nailed cause and effect there.

"The frustrating part for me is that, looking at aging, the same social inequalities and prejudices that I've dealt with all along persist in older communities."

High blood pressure/hypertension and diabetes are both conditions which can either be brought on or exacerbated by stress. Older gay/bi people have likely been under more stress, for longer, than younger gay folks have been or ever will be. As you well realize, the people they're talking about lived a great deal of their lives before being gay had even the marginal levels of acceptance that started coming around in the late '70s, much less the broader attitude shifts only present in the last 10 years or so, and even in recent times, the attitudes of older people--the peer groups to those in this study--have been among the slowest to change and remain the most reactionary.

People GREATLY underestimate the damage to a person's physical and mental wellbeing that simple stress can do, particularly prolonged stress.