NUTRITION AND THE ELDERLY

The term ‘elderly’ is often used to refer to men and women of pensionable age. But this group of people represents a cross section of the population, varying greatly in age, health, living situations, marital status, education and dietary habits. The size of the pensionable population — women aged over 60 and men over 65 — in the United Kingdon has grown rapidly in recent years. In 1901 there were 2½ million pensioners (6% of the population). By 1981, this had increased to almost 10 million (18% of the population). The greatest increase has been in the number of individuals over 80 years of age — from 218,000 to 1½ million in the same 80 year period. The over‐eighties now represent 15% of the pensionable population. More women than men are reaching very old age. The ratio of men to women is 2:1 at age 80 and nearly 3:1 at age 85.