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of families increased by nearly 37 percent from 1949 to 1959; for unrelated individuals, by 18 percent.

But for persons not employed and not enjoying sufficient amounts of benefits from investments, that is, those persons not participating directly in a growing economy, such an improvement has not been possible. This situation applies, of course, to the vast majority of retired Americans: For them, even if price rises are not equal to wage and salary rises, "productivity progress" can be and is accompanied by retirement, and sharply reduced nominal and real income. They do not participate directly in the general real wage increase, and while real prices might actually decline for the employed person, they rise sharply for the retired.

One of the basic answers for future generations of retirees in our Nation, of course, is an overall economic and employment growth policy and program that would make possible, in an effective manner, financial preparation for retirement during the productive years. Such preparation includes public, private, and individual measures. By providing bonds with a constant purchasing power, for retirement purposes, the Government would thus make possible a widespread system of partnership between itself, on the one hand, and pension funds, retirement annuity companies, and individuals, on the other hand, toward the goal of assuring retirement incomes adjusted to the cost of living at the time of retirement.

4. Finally, and as a recommendation for further serious consideration on the part of Congress, another step in this direction would consist of periodically legislated automatic adjustments in levels of social security benefits to keep up with changes in total national output, not merely with price changes. At the very least, such a proposal should be studied in the months ahead. The argument in favor of the proposal is that increases in the country's goods and services, as a result of productivity gains, should be shared by retirees as well as workers since they do contribute to the basis for such gains while still in the working force of the country. Otherwise, it is argued, retired persons would continually experience a declining level of living relative to that of the employed population. This principle is already in effect, in an isolated number of pension programs in which pensions are changed in accordance with changes in the earnings level in the occupation previously held by the retired worker.

In making these recommendations, the subcommittee notes that it is important also to consider that the level of living of senior citizens can also be substantially protected and improved through other, possibly less direct programs, such as the one recommended by the subcommittee concerning health insurance financed through the social security system; low-cost housing; changes in retirement and employment policies, etc. Furthermore, the subcommittee has no fears about the actual and potential ability of the country's economy to afford more than token improvements in the levels of living of currently and future retired men and women. A nation, such as ours, will be judged not only by the progress it makes possible for the "productive" employed and younger members of its society; it will be judged by the degree to which the retired members enjoy an abovesubsistence level of dignity and material well-being in their increasing years of retirement.

"Income of Families and Persons in the United States: 1959, Current Population Reports, Consumer Income." Bureau of Census, Jan. 5, 1961.

CHAPTER IV

A NEW EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH

Scientific research-the production of verifiable and dependable knowledge is a key factor in nearly all aspects of aging. It is the brilliant record of research in the basic biological sciences and in public health and medicine which has led to the control of infectious disease and to improvement in nutrition and in the sanitary environment. It is these factors that have added more than 20 years to average life expectancy since the turn of the century, and that, with the promised control of chronic conditions, will continue to extend the length of life. It is the equally phenomenal record of research in physics, chemistry, and agricultural and engineering technology that enables the country to sustain the rising older population. It provides the capacity to free them from the grinding poverty and misery of the majority of older people in earlier types of economies. It is to the great credit of the Congress that it has steadily and increasingly supported these researches over the long period of years necessary to produce the results we are now achieving.

THE PLACE OF RESEARCH

It is a truism in science that, while the discovery of knowledge confers benefits upon man, it also leads to new problems and new frontiers for study and investigation. Some of our older people are enjoying the fruits of longer life—in prolonged physical and mental vigor; in adequate incomes and housing; and in rich and rounded lives. But for the majority, the later years, as the subcommittee has frequently reported, are characterized by long-term illness and disability; by loss of physical and mental power due to the aging processes; and by the host of social and economic problems revealed during the subcommittee's investigations. Beyond this, millions of families, thousands of communities, and the whole Nation are confronted with problems arising out of the rapid extension of life and the growing numbers of older people.

The subcommittee is convinced that these problems and conditions exist largely because of lack of knowledge of how to resolve thembecause the expansion of knowledge has failed to keep pace with the increasing length of life, with technological developments, and with social change. One of the basic convictions of the subcommittee is, therefore, that there is immediate need for a greatly expanded research effort aimed at providing the basis for health and vigor throughout the added years; for the preservation of psychological capacities; and for the creation of social and economic conditions that will enable older people to continue as active, contributing members of society. The subcommittee believes that almost every major scientific field-the physical sciences, the biological, the psychological, and the broad spectrum of social sciences-is involved in the discovery of knowledge

that will help all of us to achieve rich, satisfying, and healthy lives as well as longer ones.

SHORTCOMINGS IN AGING RESEARCH

The subcommittee is heartened by the slowly but continually rising expenditures on behalf of older people by Federal, State, and local governments and by scores of voluntary agencies. In aggregate, the annual amounts run into billions of dollars. The subcommittee is concerned, however, as to the kind and quality of information on which expenditures and programs are based. It is fearful that, in far too many cases, they are based on fictions rather than demonstrated facts, on preconceptions rather than well-established principles, on tenaciously held prejudices rather than demonstrated knowledge. The fault, in the eyes of the subcommittee, lies not so much with those who develop and administer programs as it does with the lack of knowledge itself.

Common sense as well as established practice in business and government will not allow this situation to endure The programs for which these growing expenditures are made must be devised and administered only on the basis of such knowledge as would flow from soundly conceived and well-conducted research into the nature of the problems which the expenditures are meant to resolve or alleviate. The principle is obvious. Yet, when the subcommittee looked into the status of research on the problems of the aged and aging, it found such great shortcomings and problems as to make essential the recommendations set forth in the conclusion of this chapter. It found that such knowledge as there is in the field of aging is too narrowly disseminated and inadequately used. It found relatively few attempts to make use of knowledge from related fields that have direct bearing on the field of gerontology. It found that much socalled research in the field is second rate, carried on by poorly trained and under supervised personnel or by individuals not trained in research techniques at all.

It found that great problems exist insofar as the recruitment and training of personnel for work in gerontology are concerned. It uncovered problems relating to the financing of research in the field of aging that are directly responsible for many of these shortcomings and for the haphazard development that nas characterized the entire field of gerontology. And it found that the financing of the research we must have, if we are to act wisely in this field, is inadequate.

These findings are derived from a number of wholly reliable sources. They reflect the concern of administrators, researchers, and specialists in aging throughout the country. They are based partly on subcommittee staff meetings, much like post graduate seminars, held on October 4 and 5 of 1960, the first of which was attended by some of the leading scientists working on the medical-biological aspects of aging and the second of which included outstanding social-scientists engaged in gerontological studies. They are also based on the replies to a subcommittee questionnaire sent to a large number of acknowledged experts in this field. (See appendix for list.) And they include the essence of the convictions of the scores of scientists and specialists who participated in the more recent White House Conference on Aging. Participants in the October meetings are listed at the end of this chapter.

RESEARCH ON AGING TODAY

Research on aging gerontological research, as it is called in academic circles has characteristics and problems that are not common to other research areas. As a result, gerontology today is handicapped in establishing itself as a field to which outstanding men and women can devote themselves with any certainty of a secure future; suffers from great imbalances of emphasis; is short of personnel; and is decidedly underfinanced. These points are explained below.

Tardy recognition of the field of aging

Over the years a vast amount of research has been done on the growth and development of children and on the nature and problems of childhood and adolescence. Similarly, there is a growing volume of research on the physical and mental health, family relationships, employment problems, environmental circumstances, and other facets of young adult life. It is only now being recognized, however, that almost everyone will live into the advanced years and that the processes of aging and the problems of older people are as complex and numerous as those of the earlier stages of life.

The subcommittee is distressed that so few of those in the basic scientific disciplines-biology, biochemistry, physiology, psychology, economics, sociology, and political science have foreseen the need to extend their studies and teaching to a consideration of the aging organism and the problems of older individuals. They have been slow to set up courses on aging within their fields. The subject matter of aging is generally nonexistent or is buried in courses on other topics.

The subcommittee is in agreement with the expert opinions that until there is impetus from the top, that is, from the most respected people engaged in scientific inquiries, the colleges and universities will continue to be backward in affording gerontology a recognized position within the curriculum.

The need for a multidisciplinary approach

Some of the most serious problems now affecting research in gerontology are inherent in the compelling and inescapable fact that this field cuts across many other areas and requires an interdisciplinary approach. The processes and problems of aging affect virtually every aspect of human life. No single facet of life can be fully understood without reference to others. This is particularly true among older people whose health and mental well-being, for example, are vitally related to their incomes, the activities in which they engage, the place society accords them, and to a variety of other factors. Thus, while there is great need for research on aging within particular scientific fields, there is even greater need for research carried on by teams of researchers from several related fields working in close harness on single, but many-sided, problems.

To the extent that gerontology becomes a recognized field, researchers will appreciate the sterility of approaches that undertake to compartmentalize the individual. They will not study his behavior and needs within unrealistically narrow areas, apart from the environments within which he lives and in ignorance of the multitude of problems with which he is confronted.

Lack of depth in current research

Because the field of aging is new and because financing is inadequate and inappropriately handled, far too much of today's research is notoriously superficial and short-ranged. Biological and physiological aging is rooted in the most fundamental organic and chemical structures and life processes; psychological aging is a complex product of biological, mental, and sociological changes; the behavior of older people is a product of habits developed over a lifetime and of an enormous variety of biological, cutural, and environmental factors and influences.

In recognition of these facts, it was the overwhelming conclusion of the October seminar participants that gerontological research must be pursued both in depth and over long periods of time. It was their conviction, forcefully underwritten by participants in the White House Conference on Aging, that it is only through long-term, longitudinal studies (studies of the same people over long periods of time) that we shall ever come to a real understanding of the nature of the aging process and of the social and economic implications of aging in modern society.

Specific problems arise in the study of animals because of the cost and difficulty of obtaining adequate supplies of old animals. The difficulties of studying the processes of aging in humans are far more complicated and costly because of the much longer time periods involved, the greater number of variables, and the obstacles in the way of obtaining representative populations of middle-aged and older people. One subcommittee respondent to the questionnaire characterized such research as "large-scale experiments that will be required in many instances to detect the small-scale effects involved in many of the phenomena characteristic of the aging process." 1

Another of the many recommendations on the need for long-range studies in gerontology stated the problem in these terms:

It is an essential feature of research financing, especially in the aging field, that support be given for a sufficient period of time to enable the investigator to carry out a penetrating study. Often, this will require a period of several years, and it may be only after numerous disappointments fruitful results are forthcoming.2

The alternative to providing adequately for the long-range studies is likely to be that the researcher

may limit his research to problems from which he expects
to get very rapid results, and use methods which are not the
most desirable but will give him some kind of data to use in
a research report so that he can apply for another short term
grant.3

In recommending the long-range studies, the seminar participants discussed the length of time required for the studies that should be undertaken in terms of 5-, 7-, and 10-year periods. Studies that extend for 20 years or across an entire generation are also required. Such studies are all too rare today.

1 Alexander Grendon, Coordinator, Office of Atomic Energy Development and Radiation Protection, Governor's office, Sacramento, Calif.

Dr. H. H. Draper, Associate Professor of Animal Nutrition, College of Agriculture, University of Illinois (Urbana).

Dr. Robert B. Johnston, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska Lincoln).

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