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Who is an Older Person?
What if we refer to an older person as a senior citizen?
It would also interest you that such a person can be referred to as an elderly person.
When we consider who an elderly person is, a lot of criteria come to mind. The answer to this question varies with different individuals.
The average person believes that for a person to be addressed as an older adult, he/she would be over the age of 60.
Another factor besides age is the physical and mental state of an individual, this sends a signal to the family members and friends that the person in question is either getting old or is old.
Those signs include the wrinkles on the person’s flesh and their mental capacity which at this point has changed drastically compared to how it used to be.
In the workplace, most organizations state 60 years to 70 years as the retirement age. At this stage in a person’s life, their productivity may begin to diminish.
Some individuals within this age bracket are exempted from compulsory retirement if they can still function optimally without posing a risk to themselves and the organization.
Let us discuss older adults by classing them into four categories.
First Class (Older adults between the ages of 45 years to 59 years)
The majority of people in this class still call themselves “youthful” and are still vibrant.
Only a few people in this group start to experience aging. The signs of aging when noticed at this age are described as “early-onset”.
For example, a few women in this age bracket are known to experience menopause. Men may experience balding.
Second Class (Older adults between the ages of 60 years to 75 years)
At this stage, older adults may begin to experience certain changes in their lives such as not being able to perform certain activities to which they have been used over the years.
A few in this age bracket still find themselves very active and don’t consider themselves as being old.
Third Class (The second stage is between the ages of 76 years to 85 years)
This is the stage where older adults begin to need assistance. At this stage, it is rare to find someone who hasn’t started experiencing some changes either physically or mentally in their body.
These changes may be physical or mental. People of this age group usually start experiencing shrinkage in their flesh and changes in their bone structure.
Most times, they also witness changes in their strength, capacity, and inability to stand for so long. These changes also vary with individuals, depending on the nature of their activities when they were much younger.
Fourth Class (This category fall under any age above the 86 years)
Older adults in this class need more attention than ever before because old age brings about diminished abilities.
Older adults may require support for walking, seeing, chewing, and remembering.
Their physical and mental conditions require constant checkups to ensure that their quality of life does not take a turn for worse.
As stated earlier, the concept of an elderly person varies depending on geography and culture.
However, we at Azelders consider anyone who notices signs of aging in themselves as an older adult, for us, this may start at the age of 45.