Your 'Elderly' Parents Aren't 'Too Proud': Redefining Old Age

Decades ago, many countries decided to classify a chronological age of 65 or above as "old age", including Japan. However, there is no medical evidence to support this increasingly outdated benchmark. Many so-called "elderly" are healthy, active and don't even look over 65 these days, and do not want to be seen as "old". This may include your parents, although you may see them as old. Based on this, a recently published study shows that maybe it's time, at least in Japan, to move the "elderly" category up to 75.

When Japan's Geriatric and Gerontological societies analysed data on the health of older adults, they found that decline in walking speed and grip strength, two markers of biological aging, had improved significantly from 1992 to 2002. These changes were equivalent to a delay in aging of 5-10 years! When men and women were divided into 65-69, 70-74, 75-59 and 80+ categories, each group in 2002 could walk at least as fast as the group five years younger than them in 1992. Women over 80 could walk as fast as women over 70 in 1992. The same applied for grip strength in women, except in the 80+ category, though they were almost as strong as the women aged 74-79 in the early 1990s. In men, these gains were only significant in the 65-69 and 80+ groups. Because of these results, it is now proposed that the 65-74 age group be classed as "pre-old age", 75-89 as "old age", and 90+ (up from 85+) as "super-old". Although Japan does have the longest life expectancy out of all fully-independent nations, it is expected that the global improvements in living standards and lifestyles will create a need for this re-classification everywhere.

These changes, if they are implemented, will benefit Japanese society as a whole. Currently, so many are pushed into retirement at 60 or 65, regardless of their health, which does not benefit the younger generations as it increases pressure on the welfare system. And in a cabinet office survey, only 5% thought that people reached "old age" at 65. With stroke rates also declining among over 65s since the 1990s, the authors of this study state that these changes are long overdue. Before he died in mid-2017, we should have asked the 105 year old Shigeaki Hinohara, who continued to practice medicine after he turned 100 and advocated for other older Japanese people to maintain their own interests. He was one of the nation's 65,692 centenarians, who made up more than 1 in 2,000 Japanese citizens for the first time. It's time for change.