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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

elderly vs older

English answer:

ELDERLY

Added to glossary by eski
Feb 18, 2011 16:48
13 yrs ago
13 viewers *
English term

elderly vs older

English Medical Medical: Health Care
Which form do you prefer: "Elderly critically ill patients" or "older critically ill patients"? Is there an Amer./Brit. divide on this one?
Responses
4 +7 ELDERLY
4 +13 elderly
Change log

Aug 28, 2011 20:19: eski Created KOG entry

Aug 28, 2011 20:19: eski changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/819772">eski's</a> old entry - "elderly vs older"" to ""ELDERLY""

Discussion

Michael Barnett Feb 18, 2011:
Context Elderly patients are always elderly, but on a pediatrics ward older patients are in their teens, on a maternity ward older patients are in their late thirties and early forties and on the neonatology ward older patients are only months old.
B D Finch Feb 18, 2011:
Old question of context As this is medical, I think that one should reasonably expect "older" not to be used as a euphemism for "old".

One of the reasons why elderly people are vulnerable to getting hypothermic is that they sometimes fail to feel the cold. I have noticed that as I get older I feel the cold less, but that could be the result of high-tech clothing. I am neither old nor elderly!
Tony M Feb 18, 2011:
Don't quite agree with Cilian... Although 'older' is theoretically a comparative, in everyday usage, we often use it in this sort of way, where there is no direct comparison being made, e.g. "older houses need more maintenance" or "older people tend to feel the cold". Although there may be an element of comparison in the generalized sense of 'compared to other people etc.', I don't think it's a true comparative in such uses. In many cases, it seems almost to be something of a euphemism, to avoid saying 'old people'!

However, in this particular context, I agree with Allison's comment, that there is a danger, because we are talking about a specific group of people, that it might be mistaken for a true comparative, thus leading to a distortion of the meaning.
Travelin Ann Feb 18, 2011:
If you want to discuss the very old patient, you might consider using "geriatric." Older and elderly don't convey the same meaning. "Management of the Critically Ill Geriatric Patient" http://www.springerlink.com/content/p6073l52345502t1/
Cilian O'Tuama Feb 18, 2011:
older is comparative, elderly is not

Responses

+7
6 mins
Selected

ELDERLY

Consider:

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Note added at 7 mins (2011-02-18 16:56:05 GMT)
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Artículos académicos para Elderly critical patients
… dilatation of calcific aortic stenosis in elderly patients: … - McKay - Citado por 173
One-year outcome of elderly and young patients … - ROCKWOOD - Citado por 106
… of delirium in hospitalized elderly medical patients - Inouye - Citado por 379
Resultados de la búsqueda
Long-term outcome of critically ill elderly patients requiring ... - [ Traducir esta página ]
de L Chelluri - Citado por 178 - Artículos relacionados
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term mortality and morbidity of critically ill elderly patients requiring intensive care. DESIGN: Prospective comparison of ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8505814
Outcomes of critically ill elderly patients: is high-dependency ... - [ Traducir esta página ]
de SP Ip - 1999 - Citado por 34 - Artículos relacionados
CONCLUSION: The prognostic information that we gathered from an unselected ...
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Critical Care | Full text | Elderly patients undergoing mechanical ... - [ Traducir esta página ]
30 Mar 2010 ... Many mechanically ventilated elderly patients in Israel are treated outside of intensive care units (ICUs). The decision as to whether these ...
ccforum.com/content/14/2/R48 - En caché
Continuous Process Improvement and the Elderly Critical Care Patient - [ Traducir esta página ]
The demographics of our country are changing. With increased life expectancy comes more elderly critical care patients whom may have never sought medical ...
www.nursingcenter.com/library/JournalArticle.asp?Article... - En caché
Determinants of outcome in elderly patients admitted to the ... - [ Traducir esta página ]
de S Vosylius - 2005 - Citado por 36 - Artículos relacionados
Limitation of therapeutic activity in elderly critically ill patients. ... outcome of critically ill elderly patients after surgery. Anesthe- ...
ageing.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/34/2/157.pdf
Hospitalization Associated With Cognitive Decline in Elderly Patients - [ Traducir esta página ]
de D Brauser - 2010
25 Feb 2010 ... Hospitalization Associated With Cognitive Decline in Elderly Patients ... When seeing older patients that have survived critical illness or ...
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/717635
Elderly patients who survive ICU stay have high rate of death in ...

Saludos,
eski

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Note added at 191 days (2011-08-28 20:21:09 GMT) Post-grading
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Many thanks to lindaellen and to my peers:
have a great weekend!

eski :))
Peer comment(s):
agree Yasutomo Kanazawa
5 mins
Hi Yasutomo; thanks for your confirmation! eski
agree Jack Doughty
5 mins
Thanks & muchos saludos, Jack: eski
agree Carol Gullidge
11 mins
Thanks & saludos from Acapulco, Carol! eski
agree Ambrose Li
45 mins
Thank you & ¡Muchos saludos from Acapulco, Ambrose Li! eski
agree Tony M
46 mins
Hi Tony M: Thanks & have a great weekend! :)) eski
agree Lirka : no question :)
4 hrs
Thank you & ¡Muchos saludos, Lirka! eski
agree Joyce A
5 hrs
Gracias & muchos saludos, Joyce A! eski
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "I want to thank everyone who commented. I would give you all points, and Travelin Anne, in particular, for throwing in "geriatric". I choose eski, bcause his references can help my client in other situations. Thanks again."
+13
7 mins

elderly

"elderly critically ill patients" = critically ill patients who are elderly
"older critically ill patients" implies that of the critically ill patients, some are older and some are younger. IMHO

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Note added at 9 mins (2011-02-18 16:58:37 GMT)
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"Older patients" does not necessarily mean the patients are elderly. For example, "The older patients in the children's ward..."
Peer comment(s):
agree Yasutomo Kanazawa : Correct.
4 mins
agree Carol Gullidge : don't know which of you was first, as, by adding a note, you potentially changed the order!
11 mins
I believe it was eski, by a millisecond or two. Though how he managed all those references so quickly is beyond me!
agree British Diana
43 mins
agree Ambrose Li
45 mins
agree Tony M
46 mins
agree Egil Presttun
48 mins
agree Ildiko Santana
53 mins
agree Editor James : 100%
1 hr
agree sporran
1 hr
agree B D Finch : eski might have more references, but you given an explanation.
1 hr
agree Kim Metzger
2 hrs
agree Tina Vonhof (X) : A whole page of references does not necessarily make a more convincing argument.
3 hrs
agree Joyce A
5 hrs
Something went wrong...
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