Editor's view

摘要

noted that four papers and one book under review includednthe word ‘elderly’ in the title, compared with two editorials,none commentary and 10 papers, which used the alternativenterm ‘older’. In a Personal View published in the BritishnMedical Journal (2007: 2007: 316), Marianne Falconer andnDesmond O'Neill described the results of a Europe widensurvey, where older people expressed a clear preferencenfor the use of the adjective ‘older’ or ‘senior’ to describentheir age group, rather than terms such as ‘elderly’, ‘aged’nand ‘old’. Falconer and O'Neill also highlighted that thisnview was reflected by the Human Rights Commission ofnthe United Nations in the International Covenant on Economic,nSocial and Cultural Rights, which outlined why thenterm ‘older’ should be used. They went on to provide annumber of cogent arguments, to justify the use of the termn‘older’ rather than ‘elderly’. Professor O'Neill subsequentlynpublished a comparison of the use of the terms ‘elderly’ andn‘old’ in four General Medical and three Gerontological journalsn(JAGS, 2008; 56: 1983-1984). They reported that allnbut one of these journals used the term ‘elderly’ more thann‘older’, but this was particularly marked in the GeneralnMedical journals. As I consider my own ageing, I admit thatnI would prefer to be described as ‘older’ rather than ‘elderly’,nparticularly as the latter is often used to infer frailty, which isnnot an inevitable consequence of ageing. Readers will be usednto debate about the use of terms like ‘Geriatric Medicine’,n‘Care of the Elderly’ and ‘Medicine for the Elderly’, but Inwould welcome their views on the use of ‘elderly’ and ‘older’nin Age and Ageing, through the e-letters facility.