TY - JOUR T1 - Politically Incorrect JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 564 LP - 564 DO - 10.3399/bjgp15X687217 VL - 65 IS - 640 AU - Roger Jones Y1 - 2015/11/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/65/640/564.abstract N2 - The theme this month is older people, rather than the elderly. These terms are not synonymous, although one might be considered to subsume the other. Both are ill defined, although ‘older people’ seems to retain a sense of continuing health and preserved function, whereas ‘the elderly’ has a hint of frailty about it. Illness is not implicit in either, although it could be part of both. This isn’t political correctness, but an acknowledgement of sensibilities, stereotypes, and the need for semantic accuracy. However, concerns about giving offence to patients and others in the health system have led to many unhelpful neologisms that, when used to describe potentially uncomfortable or critical attributes or behaviours, run the risk of avoiding dealing with them at all — the knotty problems of obesity and its health impacts, for example. Concerns about … ER -