More people living to 100

Recent statistics have found that more people in the UK are living longer than ever before. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found that in 2012 there were 13,350 people in the UK who had reached the age of a hundred. As a result of improved healthcare and developments in medicine, more people are living to an older age than they used to, meaning that more are in need of mobility aids and other elderly-related assistance to lead a full and independent life as their mobility decreases.

The findings show that the life expectancy for UK residents has increased fivefold in the past 30 years as a result of better medical treatments, housing, nutrition and living standards. This, in conjunction with a decline in smoking has gone on to significantly improve the life expectancy of the country and improved technology such as home stairlifts and other mobility aids ensures that older life is more comfortable and less restricted than ever before.

On the rise

2012 saw a 73 per cent increase in a decade for the number of centenarians, with 660 of the 13,350 elderly UK residents being of an age of 105 or above. This has presented worries over the implications of an ageing population, such as a larger strain on medical services, but it also shows that the standards of living for older people in the country are improving; the longer people are living, better technology is being developed to assist in helping them maintain independence for longer.

The Office for National Statistics has said, as reported in this Guardian article, that the new life expectancy at birth is now 82.6 for women and 78.7 for men as a result of better medical care and such features in contemporary Britain, which is why many are turning to Handicare for rise and recliner chairs for the elderly and other such aids to maintain an independent and comfortable lifestyle.

Image Credit: Doc Searls (flickr.com)