Even if treatments slowed aging, most U.S. don't want to live to 120. President Barack Obama attends a national tele-town hall meeting at the Holiday Park Multipurpose Senior Center with senior citizens to discuss the Affordable Care Act and ways to combat scams targeting seniors in Wheaton, Maryland. UPI/Gary Fabiano/Pool |
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PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Most U.S. adults would not choose to undergo medical treatments to slow the aging process and live to be 120 or more, a survey indicates.
Pew Research Center researchers said there is, at present, no method of slowing the aging process to live to ages 120 or more, but by 2050, 1-in-5 U.S. adults will be 65 or older, and at least 400,000 will be 100 or older in 2050. Some say medical treatments might result in slowing the aging to 120 and older by 2050.
The U.S. public is not particularly worried about the gradual rise in the number of older Americans, with nearly 9-in-10 adults saying having more elderly people in the population was either a good thing for society or it did not make much difference. Just 10 percent said this trend was a bad thing, the survey said.
Eight-in-10 said they expected 10 years from now their lives would be even better or about the same, with younger adults particularly optimistic. However, even two-thirds of those age 65 and older, fully expected their lives to be better or about the same in another decade.
One-in-5 said they worried a lot, while 23 percent said they worry a little about outliving their financial resources in retirement while the rest didn't worry too much or at all about outliving their money.
Seven-in-10 said they wanted to live to age 79-100, with a median ideal life span of 90 -- about 11 years longer than the current average U.S. life expectancy of 78.7 years.
The survey of 2,012 U.S. adults was conducted March 21-April 8 and has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
