They are needed for care facilities for the elderly and for the care of the growing elderly population. The wisest American elders may never agree on who is older and who is not. In Rhode Island`s public institutions, seniors officially begin at age 60. In Hawaii, it comes to 55. Nationally, the IRS Tax Counseling for the Elderly program offers free tax advice to people aged 60 and older. Clinical practice guidelines are “statements systematically developed to support physician and patient decisions about appropriate health care for particular clinical circumstances”.19,20 A systematic review of clinicians` attitudes toward clinical guidelines revealed that 70% of clinicians agree that guidelines are an important source of information. However, 30% criticized these guidelines for their limited applicability to individual patients.21 Therefore, it is important to understand what limits the value of these guidelines in practice. The aim of this study was to investigate how Australian clinical practice guidelines define an `elderly` patient, the extent to which treatment recommendations are given specifically using these terms, and how they take age-related parameters into account when using pharmacotherapy. Individualized drug therapy begins with the recognition that susceptibility to a particular clinical condition, its course and response to prescribed drug therapy depend on several factors, including aging, gender, genetics, lifestyle and sociocultural aspects.45 Based on these factors, which vary considerably from person to person, Patients can be stratified for treatment recommendations, resulting in a patient-centered approach. Sustained therapeutic approach. Any treatment recommendation in clinical guidelines that views older adults as a homogeneous group of people may limit the clinical benefit of therapy.46 For example, one of the guidelines reviewed in this study limited the use of thiazide diuretics (associated with an increased risk of diabetes) as first-line treatment only to the elderly.32 This includes home care for children and the elderly. As the life expectancy of people around the world increases and the definition of age becomes a moving target, you may be wondering what makes you older. Are you old at 60? Can you be considered a senior if you are still working? And what is the boundary between middle age and old age? While none of the guidelines specifically addressed or described frailty, four guidelines contained statements suggesting a link between frailty and aging.

Some of the recommendations mentioned attributes of age (such as cognitive impairment, physical fitness) that may affect medication use and management in older adults. In general, the statements presented here address the concept of frailty and its application to clinical decision-making. In the end, “older” may be more a state of being – or feeling – than a certain age. And the question may not be whether someone else thinks you`re older, but whether you think you`re older. In developing countries, people are considered older when they retire and receive some form of pension. A total of 20 guidelines were reviewed (Table 1). Of these, 3 guidelines defined the term “seniors” in terms of chronological age; Two guidelines defined “seniors” at a chronological age of 65 years or older, and one guideline used the chronological age of 75 years or older. In the other 17 guidelines, the term “older persons” was not defined by a specific measure. A person is generally considered older when they reach an advanced stage of life beyond middle age. Today, with the increase in life expectancy, many people do not know how old they are.

Guidelines for the use of pharmacotherapy focusing on the conditions described in national health priorities were identified from databases (Medline, Google Scholar) and organizational websites (Department of Health and Ageing, National Heart Foundation, National Health and Medical Research Council). The guidelines were reviewed and qualitatively analyzed to identify any references or definitions of “seniors”. A recent New York Times article calls a 69-year-old woman older. The Philadelphia Metro considers 70 people to be elderly. When NPR recently published an article about a 71-year-old midwife, some readers rejected the word “elderly” in the original headline. If you define age chronologically, 80 is considered older because it is the number of years that have passed since a person was born. How old are the elderly? “Pretty old,” says Merriam-Webster, who doesn`t really help. “Being beyond middle age.” As they walked up the sidewalk, the large front doors parted and a pretty old woman came out. The admiration of many elderly ladies of single state.

All underlying characterizations of “older adults” appear to be very general, non-evidence-based, and potentially biased. Although most guidelines appear to consider the “elderly” population to be at risk when it comes to the use of drug therapy, few guidelines suggest the link between frailty and aging, or the link between actual physiological changes and pharmacological management of a drug. Most importantly, none of the guidelines indicated that aging is a heterogeneous process and therefore treatment application should be based on an individual assessment of the relevant parameters that support risk versus the benefits of therapy. I`m a 72 year old woman on the inside, you don`t feel and I don`t look at my age on the outside, but (I hate it) I`m depressed about it and how my years have passed and I haven`t been able to do the things I want and I feel it`s too late now? And my kids seem to get along with their kids, their family and I`m not important anymore (4 kids), so I get very depressed by the sacrifices I made to make sure they always had what they needed, single most of the time, married to a runaway Joe.