from StonyBrook University
Traditional measures of age simply
categorize people as old at a specific age,
often sixty-five. But many people in that
category have characteristics of much
younger people. The International Institute
for Applied Systems Analysis and
researchers at Stony Brook University came
up with new measures of age that will be
more palatable to people over sixty-five.
Leader of the study Sergei Scherbov says
he considers a person who is sixty today as
middle-aged. The new measures of age
incorporate changes in life expectancy. He
suggests that rapid increases in life
expectancy can be translated to mean
people are aging more slowly. Changing
the measure of old age is important
because it is often used as an indicator of
increased disability and dependence. That,
too, is changing.