When Does Old Age Start?*
The issue of when old age starts is an interesting one for older people themselves and for many disciplines. There is an extensive literature in many of these disciplines; for example, there are clear markers of ageing in biology (see for a summary) and in psychology (see for a summary). It is a particularly important one for social policy as specific services are often provided on some definition of old age. It is the latter which is the focus of this article.
The point must first be made that there is no commonly accepted definition of old age in social policy . Over retirement age, ie 60 for a woman and 65 for a man, is often used in the United Kingdom because this is the age at which people are eligible for a pension. However, 65 is also used for both sexes and the move towards equal opportunities may lead to this becoming more usual practice.
Looking at statistics, two things stand out. First, there is no agreement about the age at which people should be considered elderly. Most surveys and research provide information either on the over-60s, people of retirement age, the over-65s or the over-75s. This makes comparisons very difficult. The second point is that most data are very general. For example, much information in published reports relates to the over-65s without breaking this down into age groups or any other variables such as gender, marital status, and so on. A recent attempt to overcome this has been the setting up of the Gerontology Data Service (GDS) at the Age Concern Institute of Gerontology (ACIOG), King's College London. The GDS consists of data from the main national surveys, such as the General Household Survey and the Family Expenditure Survey. These can be analysed to give more information and cross-tabulations than is normally available in published reports. As well as providing * Based on a paper presented at a combined meeting of the Section of Psychiatry and the Section of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Royal Society of Medicine, October 13, 1992.