SOCIAL ISOLATION OF THE ELDERLY: A NURSING INTERVENTION Persons aged 65 years old or older account for approximately 12 percent of the American population. The average life span in the United States increased from an expected 70 years in the mid 1960s to 78 years in the mid 1980s. The expected life span for women is greater than that for men. Although the expected life span applies to individuals born in the year for which the statistic is determined not for those individuals already in their elderly years, life expectancy increases have been projected for all age groups including the elderly.
Through the 1990s, the elderly population segment will not be as large as it will at a later time. Although the elderly segment is the fastest growing in the American population, this phenomena is occurring solely because of increased life spans. Constraining growth in this population segment at the present time is the low birth rate in
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