High blood pressure is the most common disease in the elderly, affecting about 61% of adults aged 65 and older. When expanded to include adults 60 and up, CDC data puts the figure even higher at nearly 72%. It’s followed closely by high cholesterol (55%), arthritis (51%), obesity (30%), and diabetes (nearly 29%). Most older adults don’t have just one of these conditions. More than half of people 65 and older live with two or more chronic diseases at the same time.
High Blood Pressure: The Most Prevalent Condition
Blood pressure tends to rise with age as arteries stiffen and the cardiovascular system works harder to circulate blood. By age 60, almost three-quarters of adults meet the clinical threshold for hypertension, which is a systolic reading of 130 or higher or a diastolic reading of 80 or higher (or already taking blood pressure medication). That’s a sharp jump from the 23% prevalence seen in adults aged 18 to 39.
What makes hypertension especially significant is that it rarely causes noticeable symptoms on its own. Most people feel fine. But over years, elevated pressure damages blood vessel walls, strains the heart, and raises the risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and cognitive decline. Heart disease is the leading cause of death among adults 65 and older, and stroke ranks third. Both are tightly linked to uncontrolled blood pressure.
Regular blood pressure checks are the only reliable way to catch it, since the condition can progress silently for decades. Treatment typically involves a combination of dietary changes (particularly reducing sodium), physical activity, and medication when lifestyle adjustments aren’t enough.
High Cholesterol and Heart Disease
Just over 55% of older adults have high cholesterol, making it the second most common chronic condition in this age group. Like blood pressure, cholesterol levels tend to climb with age, and excess cholesterol builds up as fatty deposits inside artery walls. Over time, those deposits narrow the arteries that supply the heart, a process called coronary artery disease or ischemic heart disease.
Globally, there were roughly 142 million cases of ischemic heart disease among adults aged 60 to 89 in 2019. Heart disease remains the single biggest killer of older adults in the United States, contributing to the majority of the 2.3 million deaths recorded among people 65 and older in 2024. Cholesterol management through diet, exercise, and medication when needed is one of the most effective ways to reduce that risk.
Arthritis Affects 1 in 2 Older Adults
Arthritis ranks as the third most common chronic condition, affecting about 51% of adults 65 and older. Osteoarthritis, the wear-and-tear form of the disease, accounts for the vast majority of those cases. About 73% of all people living with osteoarthritis are over the age of 55.
The knees are the most frequently affected joint, followed by the hips and hands. Globally, knee osteoarthritis alone accounts for 365 million cases. The condition develops as the cartilage cushioning the ends of bones gradually breaks down, leading to pain, stiffness, and reduced mobility. Unlike hypertension or cholesterol, arthritis makes its presence felt every day, often limiting a person’s ability to walk, climb stairs, or grip objects.
There’s no cure for osteoarthritis, but staying physically active is consistently shown to reduce pain and improve function. Low-impact activities like swimming, cycling, and walking help strengthen the muscles around affected joints without adding excessive stress. Weight management also plays a major role, since every extra pound adds roughly four pounds of pressure on the knees.
Diabetes and Prediabetes
Nearly 29% of adults 65 and older have diabetes, the vast majority being type 2. But the more striking number may be prediabetes: 52% of older adults, roughly 31 million people, have blood sugar levels elevated enough to qualify as prediabetes but not yet high enough for a diabetes diagnosis. That means more than half of all seniors are either living with diabetes or on the path toward it.
Type 2 diabetes develops when the body becomes less responsive to insulin, the hormone that moves sugar from the bloodstream into cells for energy. The result is chronically high blood sugar, which over time damages blood vessels, nerves, kidneys, and eyes. Among older adults, diabetes significantly increases the risk of heart disease, vision loss, kidney failure, and slow-healing wounds that can lead to amputations. Between 4% and 6% of adults 70 and older already show signs of diabetic retinopathy, a form of diabetes-related eye damage.
Weight loss, even modest amounts, can dramatically improve insulin sensitivity and sometimes reverse prediabetes before it progresses. Regular blood sugar testing becomes increasingly important after age 45, and especially after 65 when prevalence spikes.
Hearing and Vision Loss
Sensory decline doesn’t always get classified alongside the major chronic diseases, but it affects daily life just as profoundly. About one-third of adults 70 and older have significant hearing impairment, and that figure climbs to nearly half among those 85 and older. Hearing loss in older adults typically involves a gradual loss of the ability to hear higher-pitched sounds, making it harder to follow conversations, especially in noisy environments.
Vision problems are similarly widespread. Roughly 19% of adults 70 and older have visual impairments, and about one-quarter have cataracts. Age-related macular degeneration, which destroys central vision, affects approximately one-quarter of people over 70, totaling around 3.6 million older adults. Glaucoma, which damages the optic nerve and narrows peripheral vision, reaches a prevalence of about 8% in this age group.
Both hearing and vision loss are linked to social isolation, depression, falls, and faster cognitive decline. Hearing aids, cataract surgery, and regular eye exams can prevent or slow much of the functional loss, yet many older adults delay treatment for years.
Why Multiple Conditions Matter
The real challenge for most older adults isn’t any single disease. It’s the accumulation. More than 52% of people 65 and older live with at least two chronic conditions simultaneously. Someone with high blood pressure, diabetes, and arthritis faces a web of interacting health problems: the arthritis pain limits physical activity, the inactivity worsens blood sugar control, and poorly managed diabetes accelerates blood vessel damage that raises blood pressure further.
This pattern of multiple overlapping conditions, sometimes called multimorbidity, means that managing one disease in isolation rarely works well. The lifestyle factors that help are remarkably consistent across nearly all of these conditions: regular physical activity, maintaining a healthy weight, eating a diet rich in vegetables and whole grains, and staying on top of routine health screenings. These steps won’t prevent every chronic disease, but they shift the odds meaningfully across the board.