A tendency to “postpone” old age: today’s adults consider that old age begins later in life than yesterday’s adults, according to a survey carried out among 14,000 people.
- According to a survey of 14,000 people, the perception of the start of old age tends to be “postponed”: today’s adults believe that old age begins later in life than their peers thought ago. a few decades.
- For example, when volunteers born in 1911 were 65 years old, they set the start of old age at the age of 71 on average. But when participants born in 1956 were themselves 65 years old, they set this threshold of old age at 74 years old.
- Health status can contribute to differences in this perception of old age: people who say they are more alone, in poor health and older tend to see their old age arriving earlier than others.
At what age are we “old”? “Life expectancy has increased, which could contribute to a later onset of old age. In addition, some aspects of health have improved over time, so that people of a certain age who were considered old in the past can no longer be considered old today.”
According to a study published in the journal Psychology and Agingthe perception of the beginning of old age tends to be “postponed” : Today’s adults believe that old age begins later in life than their peers thought a few decades ago.
The later one is born, the later it is estimated that old age begins
To arrive at this observation, researchers from the Universities of Stanford (United States), Greifswald (Germany) and Luxembourg examined data from more than 14,000 people living beyond the Rhine who participated in a study on aging . The volunteers, born in 1911 and 1974, answered the survey questions up to eight times over a 25-year period (1996-2021), when they were between the ages of 40 and 100. Additional participants (ages 40 to 85) were recruited throughout the study, as subsequent generations entered their 40s and old age. Among the questions they were asked to answer were: “At what age would you describe someone as old?”
The researchers first found that the more recently a person was born, the more they tended to consider that old age began later. For example, when volunteers born in 1911 were 65 years old, they set the start of old age at the age of 71 on average. But when the participants born in 1956 were themselves 65 years old, they established this threshold of old age at 74, three years later. Note, however, that this “tendency to postpone old age is not linear” And “has slowed down in recent years”we can read in a press release.
Another lesson, without much surprise, our perception of old age changes as… we get older: the older we get, the more we postpone the moment when we say to ourselves “Ah, it’s the beginning of old age “. Thus, at the age of 64, the average participant declared that old age started at 74.7; at 74, it is said to be 76.8, etc. On average, according to researchers, “the ‘perceived’ onset of old age increased by approximately one year for every four to five years of actual aging.”
The negative impact of health status on the perception of old age
In detail, the team of scientists also examined how individual characteristics such as gender and health status may contribute to differences in this perception of old age. As a result, women estimate that it begins two years later than men, while people who say they are more alone, in poor health and older tend to see their old age arrive more quickly than others.
This study “may have implications for when and how people prepare for their own aging, as well as how they view older people in general,” conclude the authors. That said, “it is unclear to what extent this tendency to postpone old age reflects a trend towards more positive views about seniors and aging, or rather the opposite: perhaps the onset of old age is postponed because People consider being old to be an undesirable state…”
