Penn Professor: Age Shouldn't Be Determining Factor When It Comes To Quality Of Life
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall spoke with Penn Professor of Medicine Dr. Jason Karlawish on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about an op-ed he had published in The New York Times on aging and the role of medicine in our lives as we grow older.
Penn Professor On Aging
Karlawish said there is more that needs to be factored into the process of aging that just doctor visits and medical tests.
"We've got to broaden our focus when we talk about aging from simply issues of medical care, such as hip replacements, etcetera, to issues really more about healthcare, the broader things that determine our health and well-being…It's not just about medical care, pills, surgeries, etcetera, but it's about healthcare, places to go, access to, say, sidewalks to walk on, etcetera, and that's an investment we need to make in aging."
He believes that as we age, we should focus on getting the most out of the time we have left.
"As a society, we need to start recognizing the broader things that determine quality of life and health, certainly in aging, but across the whole lifespan as well. We've been pretty good with things like that for children, making sure they have safe streets and schools and things like that. We need to start focusing about that on the elderly."
Karlawish stated that focusing just on age is not the best way to determine the condition of a person's life.
"Our chronologic age is becoming increasing a bit fuzzy as the way to determine whether someone should or shouldn't do something… Not all 65-year-olds are of the same health and therefore, of the same expectancy of life, and I think the field is beginning to recognize that -- that you can take an age, but when you put in other things, you can begin to see that someone who is 65 may not make it to 75, but on the other hand, another person, same chronological age, may very well make it to 85."
