What is gerontology? Gerontology? Sounds a strange word to you? Have you ever heard it anyway? Let's find out!
Ethymologically, the word can be explained from:
the greek origin: greek language : geraios - (from ancient greek γέρων /gérôn «old people» et λογία / logía «study»)
the latin one: senex( old age).
Fine. So far, so good! So, it seems that gerontology is concerned with old age. Right guess!
This is confirmed by the Gerontological Society of America : « Gerontology is the study of aging processes and individuals across the life course ».
Now, I am pretty sure that most of you have heard both about geriatry and gerontology. So, what's the difference and what's their differing scopes?
On one hand, geriatrics is a medical science. It is typically in charge of older patients (75 and older). By the way, older patients are often referred to as geriatric patients. I will come back to that in another article. Geriatrics is, in that sense, just like pediatrics, which deals with younger patients (18 and under).
Isaac Nasher was the first to use the term « geriatry », in the U.S, in 1909.
Gerontology is a human science, a social science, to be accurate. It deals with subjects linked to old age as a whole, including:
- clinical gerontology
It is concerned with the biomedical aspects of ageing. In particular, it questions: "What is pathological ageing and how to avoid it?"
- gerontopsychology
Studies the evolution of psychological mechanisms such as adaptation, resilience, etc..
- Finally, social gerontology studies aspects such as intergenerational issues, family, work, pension, linked lives, etc…
These three approaches are often interdependent. For example, male executives live 7 years more than manual workers (WHO, 2014).
Additionally, to understand ageing and old age, we need to use the above concepts.
In 1988, Biren suggested : « gerontology is an old subject, but a new science ». Additionally, he claimed that "gerontology is data-rich but theory poor."
This is just a short article to introduce gerontology and point out the main areas of studies.
In a demographic report published in 2015, the United Nations stated that the the proportion of people aged 60 and above is expected to reach 25% of the population in most industrialised countries by 2030. The trend is nearly a reality in Japan (23%), in Switzerland (21%), Italy (20%) and Greece . It is quite clear that the population most countries is getting older and older.
People also live longer (78.5 for men and 82.3 for women), so it will be interesting to examine if those longer lives involve living in better health condition. This is a key metric, known as Healthy Living Expectancy (HLE), which I will also study in a future article.
As a conclusion, and before discovering the series of articles I am writing on a weekly basis, let's ask us a final question: "why is gerontology relevant for me?"
Well, there are a couple of reasons for it:
first, to understand how ageing is going to affect you (a pretty selfish thought, but it's just true)…
second, to accompany the global trend. In terms of social, economic, demographic aspects.
third, because the industry is recruiting, so you may be interested in joining a fast-moving industry. Lots of jobs -> good for your wallet :) even if some jobs are badly paid…
fourth, gerontology is a fascinating, interdisciplinary subject. Actually, it's not a subject in itself: you have to study social sciences, statistics, IT, sociology…. Some knowledge of geography and history are often required.
See you in the next article. I will deal with the notion of the geriatric patient. Quite useful to understand, even if you don't study geriatrics. But at least, to work as a gerontologist, you need to know that concept.
