The researchers conducted fitness and brain tests on 75- and 80-year-olds from this decade, and compared the results to 75- and 80-year-olds three decades ago. Based on the results, today’s aging population is healthier than their age group used to be.
Both study cohorts’ walking speed, reflex speed, verbal fluency, reasoning, and working memory were monitored. While the participants were the same age at the respective times they were studied (1990 vs. 2018), the latter group was far more sprightly.
To break it down: adults from the most recent decade walked faster by 0.2 to 0.4 meters per second, on average. They also had faster reflexes, including a 5 to 25% improvement in grip strength, and a 20 to 47% improvement in knee extension strength.
Along with the significant increase in fitness, the researchers found positive increases in cognitive functioning. Verbal fluency was 12% higher for the 75-year-olds in 2018, and 47% higher for the 80-year-olds in 2018.
“Performance-based measurements describe how older people manage in their daily life, and at the same time, the measurements reflect one’s functional age,” lead researcher Taina Rantanen, Ph.D., says in a news release.
So people aren’t literally aging in reverse like Benjamin Button, but their physical and cognitive abilities represent a younger functional age—especially compared to generations before them.