PARIS, April 26 — At what age do we reach “old age”? This question was explored in a study of over 14,000 people in Germany. The results suggest that perceptions of old age have evolved over the generations, with younger people tending to perceive the onset of old age as starting later than their elders.
Trying to guess the age of a coworker, an acquaintance or a distant family member can be a minefield, because age is often a sensitive subject. All the more so since, from one person to the next, the criteria for categorising someone as “old” or “elderly” vary greatly depending on the age of the person making the judgment.
What does it even really mean to be “old”?
Wouldn’t it be wiser to adhere to the old adage that age is a state of mind? An international team of researchers from Stanford University in the US, the University of Luxembourg and the University of Greifswald, Germany, and Humboldt University in Berlin explored the matter in depth by surveying 14,056 German residents born between 1911 and 1974.
To assess the participants’ perception of old age, the study authors asked them a simple question: “At what age would you describe someone as old?” “We found that at age 64, the average perceived onset of old age is at about age 75 years,” write the researchers, in a paper published in the journal, Psychology and Ageing.
At 74, meanwhile, people said that old age began at 76.8. “Longitudinally, this perceived onset age increased by about 1 year for every 4 — 5 years of actual ageing,” the study notes.
In particular, the researchers observed how participants’ perception of old age evolved as they grew older. Participants answered survey questions up to eight times over a 25-year period.
The researchers noted that the younger generations surveyed perceived old age as starting later. For example, when people born in 1911 were 65 years old, they considered old age to begin at the age of 71.
At the same age, those born in 1956 said that the onset of old age was at 74, on average.
These results can be explained by the increase in life expectancy and later retirement. Moreover, “some aspects of health have improved over time, so that people of a certain age who were regarded as old in the past may no longer be considered old nowadays,” says study author Markus Wettstein, PhD, of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, quoted in a news release.
A slowing trend
Is this an encouraging sign that ageism is coming to an end? Not necessarily, according to Markus Wettstein: “It is unclear to what extent the trend towards postponing old age reflects a trend towards more positive views on older people and ageing, or rather the opposite — perhaps the onset of old age is postponed because people consider being old to be an undesirable state,” he explains.
The researcher concludes: “The trend toward postponing old age is not linear and might not necessarily continue in the future.” The researchers also note that the later perception of old age has slowed over the past two decades.
Moreover, the study notes that women set the threshold for old age on average two years later than men. Plus, the researchers found that feeling older, lonelier, being more prone to chronic illness and being less healthy were all factors that, when combined, can actually promote the perception of an earlier onset of old age.
The authors of this research now hope to extend it, particularly to non-Western countries, in order to understand how perceptions of ageing may vary in relation to ethnic origin and culture. — ETX Studio
