Geriatrics in Industrial Medicine *

This has been called the Century of the Common Man. But since the common manis living longer and has aspirations of living to be a hundred, we might more appropriately call it, as someone has suggested, the Century of the Centenarian.1 Today the common man's life expectancy at birth is 65 years or more. In some areas of Florida and California every fifth person is over 65.1 It is estimated that there are in the United States today about 10,000,000 persons in this age bracket and that the number will be doubled by 1980.4 During 1946 two new journals were established devoted to a study of the aged and the aging process, Geriatrics and The journal of Gerontology. These new publications recognize that, while solving one set of problems through conquering infectious disease and keeping people alive longer, medicine has at the same time created for itself a set of new and different problems.1 Prior to the war, the aged were fast losing their place in industry through lay-off or retirement. The mechanization of agriculture reduced the opportunities for older persons on the farm. There was little in the nature of home handicrafts that earned an income for them. According to Beard,1 some political, social, and civic organizations had established the policy of restricting office-holding to younger members; and a bill was recently introduced in a state legislature barring citizenE from holding office after the age of 70. Out of the need for manpower the war brought about a favorable change in attitude toward the employment of older persons in industry. It is important to continue their employment for otherwise we shall saddle on the diminishing fraction of younger persons an increasing burden to support the aged either directly, or indirectly through taxation. Before we can expect this continued use of aged workers (1) we must overcome certain prejudices against the aged; (2) we must provide them with medical care that will "add life to years, not just years to