Increased life expectancy. Until recently, individuals with a disability seldom enjoyed the same life expectancy as their peers without disabilities. Secondary medical conditions such as respiratory illness, renal failure, accidents, infections, and depression, coupled with a general lack of adequate primary medical care, prevented most persons from experiencing their true life expectancy. Today, advances in medicine and rehabilitation have made the expectation of living to late life fairly reasonable for most persons, even those with a significant disability. In fact, aging with a disability has been described as one of the most important new developments in rehabilitation.
Disability changes over the lifetime .
Research on aging with a disability has been ongoing for only about 15 years, but many new discoveries have already challenged previously accepted beliefs. The phenomenon of aging. The goal of aging research is to gain understanding and control of the genetic, environmental, health, and lifestyle variables that affect the processes of aging so that each person can live a quality life for the maximum number of years. Aging is not the same as being aged. Biological aging actually begins when a person is about 25 years of age.