When does old age begin?

Young at heart: Australians are living healthier, longer lives

In the first half of the 20th century the Australian lifecycle was a relatively simple concept. Across the 65 years between birth and death there was childhood, adulthood and old age. My late parents, both of whom were born in the 1920s, recalled it was common for their parent’s generation to splurge on getting false teeth as a 50th birthday present. In an era of poor oral healthcare, getting false teeth was a marker to the onset of old age. Turning 50 today is more likely to mark the onset of the “empty nest” stage of the lifecycle when adult children leave (or at least think about leaving) the family home.

The markers of old age are also on the move. Far more Australians are working in their 60s and 70s today than was the case three generations ago. Life expectancy is now closer to mid-80s than to mid-60s and the kind of work that is undertaken is now mostly knowledge work and not physical labour. Working outside as a farm labourer without sunscreen on a diet of meat, potatoes and jam roly-poly pudding and smoking a packet of unfiltered cigarettes everyday takes a terrible toll. Have a look at family photographs of your grandparents or great grandparents from their wedding day in the 1910s and again 30 years later and they’re barely recognisable.

Our longevity is delivered by better healthcare including dental as well as public health programs that have outlawed or at least rightly deglamorised smoking. I doubt my maternal grandfather, who died from lung cancer at the age of 62, ever ate a salad. The idea probably never occurred to him or to his wife, my grandmother.

Until quite recently youth and beauty were fleeting concepts that extended between the age of the debutante (say, 17) to perhaps 30 (after four kids). It was the Beatle John Lennon who said in 1968, at the age of 28, “don’t trust anyone over the age of 30”. Half a century ago Lennon thought middle age started at 31. The oldest cohort of the Millennial generation, the children of the baby boomers, are now passing 41; I doubt they would consider themselves “middle aged.” By these markers, the start of middle age has kicked out at least 10 years over the last 50 years from early 30s to early 40s.

All this leads to the question: when does old age begin? The most commonly accepted marker is, or at least has been, eligibility for the age pension, which is generally accepted as 65. Even this marker is being pushed out; age pension eligibility is now 67 for Australians born in January 1957.

But then many Australians are choosing to work, perhaps in a reduced capacity, well beyond the technical age of pension eligibility. Here a dividend of previous generation’s investment in public health (fewer people dying of lung cancer), in the pursuit of a better diet, in medical research leading to fewer deaths from, say, bowel cancer through early detection. Even initiatives such as public investment in a sewerage system (in the 1950s and 1960s) and in reticulated water and gas (for heating) have made a difference to longevity.

Those choosing to work beyond pension eligibility may be doing so to better provision for their own (later) retirement or maybe to help their kids or grandkids. For others it may be because they enjoy working; they feel it keeps them engaged and mentally alert. For others it may be the simple satisfaction of passing on skills, of mentoring others or that they’re simply meeting market demand for their skills.

Childhood was once easily defined as the period from birth to puberty. Thereafter it was a just a few years to employment, to marriage, to establishing a separate household. The transition to adulthood was confirmed with the arrival of children by the age of 21 or 22. Today the nurturing and learning stage of youth, and the postponement of commitment (usually via marriage), has pushed out to late 20s or early 30s via the arrival of children.

More workers living and working longer generates more productive capacity. But it also generates demand for services including healthcare and pension support. And while it’s always difficult to find funding for specific needs, what this longer-term perspective shows is the benefit of public health programs that deliver more years of a better overall quality of life. It also suggests we need to be flexible in thinking about and referring to concepts and cohorts such as middle age and old age, which are continually on the move.