by Sharon J. Proctor
Photograpy by Rick Etkin

The boomers are big in numbers – and in size.
Will their fear of aging get them moving?

Meet Andrew Wister, professor and chair of SFU's department of gerontology, and a boomer. His recent book, Baby Boomer Health Dynamics (University of Toronto Press), is about the baby boomer population bulge that has been moulding society as it climbs the age ladder. Born from 1946 to 1965, the boomers are now approaching retirement. Everyone assumed they would be the healthiest, longest-living generation ever because they grew up in prosperous times, exercised more, smoked less, and drank less than their parents and grandparents. But while life expectancy has risen, boomers are not healthier in every respect. Too many are dangerously overweight and being diagnosed with chronic ailments. 

How could this happen?

To find the answer, Wister examined several decades of census, industry, medical, behavioural, and demographic information collected on different age groups. He searched for patterns in the data that would explain the boomer health anomaly. In his book, he takes you on his journey through the records until he discovers the culprit – fast food.  

In person, Andrew Wister is tall and lean and looks more like an Olympic distance runner than a professor. It turns out he does a lot of hiking, golfing, and working out. His office in SFU’s downtown Vancouver campus looks onto Seymour Street in the city’s business section. He leans back in his desk chair and explains how he became interested in older people.  

“I was a sociology major at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in the 1970s. There I took a class called social demography, in which I wrote a paper critiquing a conservative view of what a society would look like with a large proportion of older people. After taking time to travel around the Caribbean, I got a job as a research assistant to Thomas Burch, an internationally known demographer at UWO (demographers study human population trends). He had a grant to study the significant increase in older adults living alone independently. I became even more involved in studying older people, particularly the cultural and normative (typical, or the “norm”) aspects affecting their living arrangements, and the phenomenon of older women living alone.”  

Before the 1970s few older people lived alone. What brought about the change? “One possibility is declining fertility,” he suggests. “This might decrease the opportunity for people to live with their adult kids. Another is increased income; this would enable people to buy their privacy. Or it could be better health, available support services, or the increased availability of apartments and single-unit dwellings.

Wister’s research took him along several paths. One concerned health promotion and prolonging people’s independence as they age, against the backdrop of social and demographic change. That research eventually led to the aging baby boomer population.

Can society make it easy for us to adopt a healthy lifestyle? “I don’t think so. The advertising industry for the fast food companies is phenomenal. How do you market against that? There’s no easy solution. We’re an extremely media-advertising-visual-technical kind of society. We want everything... fast!”

Another source of stress is the way our society worships youth. Can we get boomers to eat better and live longer if they dread growing old and dying? Dr. Wister thinks the boomers may rationalize their situation. “They’ll redefine ‘old age.’ Look at today’s age 50; it’s considered yesterday’s 40. Today’s 65 was 55 a decade ago. If you ask boomers if they’re old, they’ll say no. Our life expectancy is getting longer, and there are many good 60- to 70-year-old healthy role models for them to see.”  

Still, boomers and other adults are reacting to the youth culture with hair dye, liposuction, plastic surgery, and Botox. “[Procedures] like liposuction can be dangerous, in that they don’t get at the root cause of why you’re carrying too much fat. If you don’t find the root cause and change your lifestyle, the effect won’t last. For most people it’s easier to have surgery than to make fundamental lifestyle changes.   

“To get people to alter their eating and exercise habits, we would have to change our society’s fundamental norms and expectations,” he says. “We did it with smoking. Can we do it with fast food and exercise? It would be an uphill slippery slope. Until we get specific fundamentals changed, we’ll only improve the health of certain segments of society. For one thing, nutritious food is more expensive than fast food. And if individuals are poor, just trying to eat regularly and make ends meet, do you think they will exercise more and avoid fast food? We need a healthy public policy supported by charismatic leadership at all government levels.” 

Older people aren’t Wister’s only interest. “I’m interested in people of different ages and in issues that relate to the future. Among other things, I’ve been looking at a lifestyle approach to cardiovascular health, the problem of inequality, and housing for the elderly. I like to solve problems and explore peripheral issues rather than mainstream ones.”  

As well, Wister likes to watch old movies. “I also like jazz, including Miles Davis, jazz-rock fusion, biographies of rock music people, books by John Irving and other fiction.” The interview over, he pushes back his chair, reaches for a canvas bag, pulls out something and shows it off. “My favourite band is Steely Dan. This is my ticket to the upcoming concert! . aq

In reviewing literature on this topic, one of the most simple but powerful messages is that infusing balance in one's lifestyle is pivotal to good health; that balancing stress and relaxation, activity, diet and eating habits, body and mind, and individual responsibility, and awareness of barriers to changing health behaviours are all part of a healthy lifestyle. Such an approach is not automatic; it is learned and relearned through various interpersonal and institutional channels as we age. It is also something that may not come easily to individuals who are facing stressful conditions in life, with few social or financial resources to facilitate change, or few opportunities for introspection. There is no singular formula that will be effective for everyone, but there are lifestyle axioms that are identifiable and reachable for large segments of society, including marginalized and disadvantaged. We know that strength training combined with aerobic exercise has enormous health benefits, and even walking can improve cardiovascular health significantly (Manson et al., 2002). We know that the quality and quantity of foods influence our health. And we know that smoking and heavy drinking are deleterious. Achieving incremental improvement in healthy lifestyles for enough people may prove to be one simple and effective strategy for population health. For instance, we have witnessed the implementation of walking programs at the community and national level in North America, as well as the proliferation of pedometers targeting individuals, such as the 1,000-steps-a-day walking program (Wister, 1999). Why can't walking become a fad?

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