{"id":2559,"date":"2026-05-28T16:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/?p=2559"},"modified":"2026-05-28T16:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T16:00:15","slug":"living-and-aging-with-a-disability-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/2026\/05\/persons-with-disabilities\/living-and-aging-with-a-disability-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Living and Aging with a Disability &#8211; Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For many, <strong>aging with a disability <\/strong>is accompanied by numerous health problems that usually do not occur until 10-15 years later in non-disabled persons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>3-4x increased risk of new medical problems: diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure\/cholesterol, respiratory conditions, bone loss, and thyroid disorders.<\/li>\n<li>Common complaints include fatigue, new weakness, and pain often progressing to a point of limiting independence. May need use of assistive devices. Increasing physiologic decline, disability and handicap, and cost of care.<\/li>\n<li>Changes in health impacts quality of life for individual and family. Psychological issues, including depression affects 15-40% of people aging with a disability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>CEREBRAL PALSY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Decline in energy and activity levels. Some bladder difficulty and spinal stenosis reported. More bone fractures per year compared to non-disabled.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Aging process is affected by the nature and severity of the impairment, secondary conditions , medical issues, and medication usage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DOWN SYNDROME<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Increased chance of hypothyroidism, hypertension, and arteriosclerosis.<\/li>\n<li>Shorter life expectancy of 55 years old, but many live into 70s.<\/li>\n<li>Most adults over age 40 have some neuropathological changes characteristic of Alzheimer\u2019s Disease, but only some develop dementia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Outlive parents and can\u2019t rely on adult siblings. Must plan for the future.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There has been little research on this topic. Doesn\u2019t reduce life expectancy. Limited ADLs and IADLs.<\/li>\n<li>Common issues: urinary tract infections,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>pneumonia, and septicemia.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Loss of mobility (fatigue, falls), dependency on caregiver\/family, or possibility of moving into nursing home; most require multiple mobility devices. Rehabilitation therapy has shown to help functioning.<\/li>\n<li>Controversial study found that MS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>doesn\u2019t get worse with age and seems to disappear in the 70s, but MS remains unpredictable and attacks can occur in this age group.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Effects of aging vary greatly. Memory<\/p>\n<p>impairment, slower learning of new material, gait and balance problems, ataxia, decreased sensory acuity, diminished executive functions, reductions in appetite and libido.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POST-POLIO SYNDROME (PPS)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Develops several decades after a person has had polio. Affects the muscles and nerves, causing weakness, fatigue, pain, and other symptoms. Start to experience onset of new symptoms and functional limitations, which threaten to further erode health and independence and an increase need for services.<\/li>\n<li>Mean age of 63-Age of person at acute onset and historical period are significantly related to the severity of the initial impairment as well as the physical and psychosocial wellbeing. Contracted at a younger age and earlier in the century were less impaired. Measured by the number of limbs affected vs. contracted later during the peak of the epidemic and at an earlier age. Timing and initial severity have a big impact.<\/li>\n<li>Excessive fatigue, slowly progressive muscle weakness with or without decrease in muscle bulk, muscle pain or twitching where effected by original disease. Joint pain and respiratory problems reported.<\/li>\n<li>Severity and experience polio after 1940 at older ages most at risk for depressive symptoms and low scores on acceptance of disability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>SPINAL CORD INJURY<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Effects begin around age 40 with SCI for 20 years. Effects of aging depend on nature and duration of injury\u2014quad early 40s, lower injuries early 50s.<\/li>\n<li>More pain, fatigue, effort to do activities, weakness, unable to do things previously done independently.<\/li>\n<li>Diabetes at 4x the rate of nondisabled persons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00b7\u00a0Changes ranging from decline in health and physiologic functioning to sociologic changes, ie, increasing financial stresses, changing relationships, perception of self and roles, and spiritual growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For many, aging with a disability is accompanied by numerous health problems that usually do not occur until 10-15 years later in non-disabled persons: 3-4x increased risk of new medical problems: diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure\/cholesterol, respiratory conditions, bone loss, and thyroid disorders. Common complaints include fatigue, new weakness, and pain often progressing to a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[71,230],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-persons-with-disabilities","tag-disabilities","tag-persons-with-disabilities"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2560,"href":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions\/2560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flnavigator.com\/healthfairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}