POPULATION IS AGING

Missouri's population is aging.

In 1990, Missourians 65 and older accounted for 14 percent of the state's population. By 2020, the percentage will have climbed to nearly 18 percent.

By then, more than 1 million of the state's 5.6 million people will be 65 years of age or older, according to the Missouri Division of Aging.

In Southeast Missouri alone, there were nearly 86,000 people age 60 or older in 1994. That number included more than 30,000 residents who were 75 or older.

Missouri is a destination for many retirees, said Jerry Simon, acting director of the Division of Aging.

Missouri has the ninth-largest population in the nation of senior citizens over age 60.

Serving the needs of the nation's aging population will put added pressure on federal and state budgets in the coming years, Simon said.

Thirty to 40 years ago, families took care of their elderly relatives. "The family tended to stay together more," said Simon.

But today, nursing homes and home health-care agencies have taken the place of family care in many respects, he said.

People are living longer thanks to modern medicine, said Brenda Johnson, who teaches in the nursing department at Southeast Missouri State University. Johnson specializes in gerontology.

Americans live to be more than 75 years old, on average.

Johnson said the number of Americans age 85 and older has increased dramatically.

That age group is expected to double by 2010 and triple by 2025.

In 1988, one in every 15 Americans was over 85 years of age. By 2030, it is projected that one of every 10 people will be over 895 years of age, she said.

The elderly are more susceptible to chronic illness, such as heart disease.

"A lot of our resources in our country have gone toward treating acute illness. A lot of our resources have not gone toward good management of chronic illness," she said.

The number of monthly Medicaid nursing home residents in Missouri is projected to increase to over 71,000 by the year 2020, Division of Aging officials said.

But Johnson said a common misconception is that the elderly end up in nursing homes.

Only 5 percent of the nation's elderly reside in nursing homes at any given time, she said.

Many senior citizens receive medical care from home-health nurses.

Home-health-care agencies are booming. Many home-health agencies carry a client caseload equal to that of a hospital, Johnson said.

"There is a trend to keep people in their homes as much as possible," she said.