In your opinion, how old is 'elderly'?

[CustardySergeant]

I'm watching BBC news and their report from an ICU in which "most patients are elderly". I think there is quite a difference of opinion on this on MN no doubt related to the age of the poster. I'm just curious and also wonder whether calling someone elderly necessarily has other connotations than simple age.

Chimny please, please refer to the next five 55 year olds you meet as ‘elderly’ to their faces, and report back. Please.

My mother had her purse pinched out of her bag at the supermarket, and had her PIN number on a Post-it note attached to her card, of course 🤦🏼‍♀️. She was interviewed for the local news and was INCENSED when they referred to her as elderly! (She was 65, anorexic and had COPD, so didn’t exactly look great for her age, either....) Wondered why no one was very sympathetic.

Is this a different use of words thing?

To me elderly means very old, a bit frail, you know, old old!

My parents are old but not elderly yet.

I'm in South East, maybe the words are used differently in different parts of the country?

70+

Well, older than me of course (60) so let's say 70+.

80+

80+
Both my parents are in their 70's and are fit and healthy, they're my benchmark. Maybe once they reach 80 I'll reconsider

80

I'd say it's when you go over average life expectancy ie 81. You're then really on borrowed time.
Old begins at state pension age

I would say over 80 really .However so much depends on the person ,my Aunt is over 80 and walks 13 miles with her U3A group and does codeword puzzles ,and makes notes in shorthand!Some people in their 40s and 50s would struggle with that!

FIL is in supported housing, for the elderly, it’s 55+, assuming that’s standard across the country. I don’t know how people can genuinely believe you’re not elderly until 70-80!

I've seen a lot of "retirement " developments for 55+ but since majority of people are working til at least 65 I'm not sure how many 50 somethings would live there. Also I know several 55 year old dads with quite young teens who probably wouldnt want to (or be particularly welcome) to live in a retirement complex!

The elderly get older as I do

To me, elderly implies old and frail. As in the little pics you see by the reserved seats on buses, showing a pregnant woman and a bent old person with a stick.

So I suppose anyone over 65 ish (I’m older than that) who’s also not very mobile/unsteady on their feet.

Which will more often than not be the over 80s but not all of them by any means.
E.g. my FiL at over 80 was still cycling and playing tennis, so while he was old, he wasn’t elderly - not the way I see it anyway.

Late seventies/early eighties

I would say 80 - 85 and over. Mil is 76 and nowhere near being elderly! I know someone who is 81 and doesn't seem elderly. She still drives very well and is really good on a computer.

I'd say 75+ ish. Some people are old before their time due to attitude. I remember my aunt deciding she was 'an old lady' from about 50.

Where I work Care of the Elderly was renamed Older Adult which is 65+. That's the point at which our medication doseages are reconsidered and reduced as the way our bodies work starts to change.

In my own opinion, it's a state of mind. Some people hit retirement and give up, others thrive and are at their most active!

I looked at 55+ housing but they wouldn't let me live there with my daughter which was an issue as she was still at primary school.

Clearly I wasn't serious about buying. Neither would the other 50+ yr old mums at the primary school gates.

There are 2 definitions relating to what is elderly:

1. The chronological, `factual` one, which relates to things like the age people qualify for their state pension. This used to be 60 for women but is now 67. In. Other countries it can be different; I just googled and found it's 64 in Switzerland, 65 in Canada, and 66 in the US, but seems to be going up in most countries. So even the official definition of `elderly` is in flux.

1. The `biological` age which depends on lots of factors but basically relates to how healthy you are, as well as your quality of life in terms of things you are able to do. It is this which often influences some of the difficult decisions that doctors have to make. There are calculators online, e.g. this one:

www.biological-age.com/

(Hurray - apparently I'm 41!! Even though, chronologically, I'm in my 60s...)

FIL is in supported housing, for the elderly, it’s 55+, assuming that’s standard across the country. I don’t know how people can genuinely believe you’re not elderly until 70-80!

So @chimny if you think 55 is elderly, what do you consider those at 80 and older?

My sister is 57, works full time (like most 57 year olds), is a hobby baker for friends and family, climbs mountains and runs marathons for 'fun'. Oh and she's getting married this year to an equally fit 60 year old.

Acknowledging you're getting older does not mean clocking in at the geriatric club when you hit 55. It would be a shame if you did that.

80+

70+

Although it really depends on the person. My mum is almost 70, lazy, has poor health and does seem elderly.

My Dad is the same age and still working, always busy and very active, no way would I class him as elderly.

I definitely feel that elderly describes a state of mind/health rather than a specific age range, same as middle age.

Interestingly, I work in medical education and we no longer refer to people as elderly as it's seen as a loaded term. The term we use is 'older adults'.

I always think of elderly as the few years prior to being old! So I’d say around 75 is elderly. 80+ is old. (The average age to die is something like 82, isn’t it?).

Generally it’s a state of being though, and not at all determined by state of mind. My parents were both extremely active until 70 (much more active and outdoorsy than most people their age) but then both got health issues that meant they couldn’t be anywhere near as active. Both got quite down about having to slow down (my mum kept pushing herself too much trying to ignore her afflictions and ending up in hospital).