Is the often used threshold of 60 years changing? And if so, is it the ongoing changes in life expectancy or social/economic/political issues that are driving the change?
See also:
Technical Report Defining "Old Age". Markers of old age in sub-Saharan Africa...
Technical Report Definition of an older person. Proposed working definition o...
Just a note on this thread - we should shift away from using the term "elderly", as it is considered pejorative. Older adult, older persons, older people or just adults without the adjective are preferred terms.
Hi Paul,
I used 65 y as threshold but without any specific justification, just maybe because it is the most used. That said, to my view, there is not only one threshold. Older population is so heterogeneous, that it seems difficult to define threshold. Moreover, is a person aged 65+ in the US is the same that the one who live in SSA or LAC or Asia? I'm not sure. The threshold may be defined also based on the topic studied. From an economic point of view, is the age of retirement (no longer in labor force) defined older age? From medical point of view, are you old when you get 2 comorbidities? I'm not sure that this question will find an unique answer. However, very interesting to have point of view of other researchers on this subject.
Best,
Sophie
In recent years, means-tested old age grant eligibility was increased to include men aged 60 and older. Previously, men had to have reached 65. (For women it had always been 60). On reaching 75, the pension amount increases marginally. Not sure what informed these threshold decisions?
Generally, we include a group of population above 60+as an elderly. This may vary from 60to 65+ often, though this inclusion criteria is quite debatable.
There should not any cut-off point of identifying as an elderly. When an individual will be unable for doing any physical movement like, to comply with daily life activities may be designated as elderly.
Just a note on this thread - we should shift away from using the term "elderly", as it is considered pejorative. Older adult, older persons, older people or just adults without the adjective are preferred terms.
In the same sense with Paul Kowal I indicate this editorial for reading:
Putnam, Michelle. "Replacing the Elderly With Older Adults in JGSW Publications." (2015): 229-231.
Great opinion piece, Luciano, many thanks for sharing. Elegantly written and does address the importance of framing in our world - both personal and professional. Thank you, Paul
Very many thanks, Luciano, for this seminal paper. I am writing just a short article, "Re-thinking ageism and scapegoating among older persons" and one of the focal tenets of interest has got to do with the use of "elderly" in describing older persons, especially in the Asia-Pacific Region. I think this article you posted will be of immense help in grounding my arguments.
Thanks, again.
-- Razak
Look forward to reading that Razak. In the mean time, a gentle suggestion that you might want to revise some wording in one of your very interesting research projects on researchgate.net
Goal: I am interested in how..... these impact on socio-spatial disparities of healthcare access/use by the elderly
Sincerely, Paul
Many thanks, Paul, for this insightful and critical comment. Yes, you are entirely right! I have become the victim of the circumstance. However, I have edited this.
Goal: I am interested in how .... these impact on socio-spatial disparities of healthcare access/use by older people.
I really appreciate your help.
Best, Razak
Hi all,
We just have to "google" the following key terms: "elderly" or "older adults" to see that this is subject to debate in scientific journal but also in newspaper and I am happy of that.
Since recently I avoid as much as possible using he term "elderly" and to replace it by "older adults" or "adults aged XX and older" in my paper. I had the question: "Why do you avoid to use the term "elderly"? I had to explain why to native English speaker (I'm not!). One day, one reviewer of my paper told me that he does not like the term of "older adults" (at the same time, he did not mention which term he preferred!) !
Sophie.
I feel that our systems have driven this change. A longer life span due to medical advancements could have created the need to categorize our oldest generations. That being said, it is difficult to place individuals from sixty years old until death within the same category, just as it would be to describe those in the first half of their life as ‘young people’. Our economic system in Canada, driven by the creation of Old Age Pension, labelled those who were over sixty-five as 'aged'. Societal implications could be related to the institutionalization of adults based on their age. Prior to specific supportive housing for older adults in Canada, those who lived in institutions were more often there due reasons other than age. I believe older adults could constitute any age depending on the perspective of those categorizing them. Children have told me an older adult is thirty years old. Adults in their eighties have told me that they perceive those who are older than them as 'old' and not themselves. I've actually heard a woman in her nineties describe those around her as 'old people' and not herself. I prefer to avoid the need to categorize someone based on their age as we all live differently. When we begin to label someone based on a specific characteristic we potentially project a certain image onto the person we are discussing.
"The most distinct factors relative to the elderly in the period before this century, were that they were not identifiable on the basis of age as a separate group, and that they were seen more often as merely the older members of other social groups. Obviously, these perceptions were extended to include institutional care." (Emodi, 1977). Reference: http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/schl-cmhc/NH18-25-4-1977-eng.pdf
Thanks, Stephanie. I have had similar experiences and appreciate you sharing these vignettes. Ageism can happen at any age...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/20/why-ageism-never-gets-old
And Sophie... with regards to reviewer comments...I have come to realize that authors are from Venus and paper reviewers are from Mars (or some more far flung planet)...
For my experience is 65 years or older and is use because social matter such as retirement
Hi all,
For global analysis, should we define older adults in the same way?
In my paper, I used 65+ as threshold but one reviewer rightly pointed out that putting together LMICs and HICs in the same paper is challenging since in many LICs older patients represents small relative percentage of the population and therefore the interest in this sub population is modest in terms of public health.
I'd like to have your point of view on this.
Thanks,
Sophie.
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