ears of age; there has been a 50 percent increase in the proportion of older persons in the United States since the turn of the century. The United States (regarded by Europeans as a "young" nation) is becoming a nation of the middle aged and the elderly.3
Not only has life expectancy increased, but the prospect of remaining in fairly good health has increased as well. On the whole, members of industrialized societies live long lives. Over the last few centuries, the age at which a person is considered old has risen. The definition of "old age" is going through a period of constant change. Hence, the perception of someone as "old" generally depends upon a number of potentially intersecting factors. Although women age more slowly than men in biological terms, in social terms they age more rapidly and are considered old at an earlier age than are men. In general, working class persons age or at least appear to age more rapidly than members of higher social classes. Legal definitions of old age vary widely. Indeed, attempts to capture the notion of old age strictly chronological terms are bound to fail. Aging is a complex process that is as yet not well understood. Anyone can easily observe that people age at vastly differnt rates, and that people vary greatly in the way that they respond to getting older. For that reason, the meaning of the concept "old age" is difficult to specify exactly.4
Although Americans are living longer than they ever have, advancing age still brings health problems.5 Elderly persons experience more disease and disability than do younger persons. They see physicians about half again as much; they visit hospitals twice as often and stay in the hospital twice as long as do younger persons. As is well known, certain chronic conditions, including arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, afflict the elderly disproportionately. The acuity of the senses, notably vis...