Hi, Age=: Time since an reference event took place and is expressed as: lightyears, years, months, days, minutes, seconds (and parts thereof) There is one fixed reference point and one changing (non-fixed) reference point in time.
e.g. Event: big bang of our universe -> age of the universe Event: birth of a person -> age of a person Puberty=: ??? What is the reference event? Start of sexual development? Certain hormonal changes? Or is this the time of birth? We have two fixed reference points (two fixed referenced events) in time and no non-fixed point in time. This type of concept is clearly different from the 'Age' concept as defined above. My point is: Concepts like these are expressed in the same manner as 'Age'. But are different. Question to be answered: How will we name these two distinct types of concepts? Peter is using the term 'relative age' to indicate things like puberty, or menopause. Both types of concepts are relative since any time measurement is relative. So we need a better term. In my system of concepts 'Age of a person' is just one of the co-ordinates to place an object in time-space with its birthdate as reference event 'Age at which a person entered the state of puberty' is not placing a person in time-space co-ordinates. It is indicating a change of state of the person and the time at which this took place expressed using the concept 'age of a person'. It is expressing a functional aspect belonging to the person. Gerard -- <private> -- Gerard Freriks, arts Huigsloterdijk 378 2158 LR Buitenkaag The Netherlands +31 252 544896 +31 654 792800 On 01 Feb 2005, at 02:45, Elkin, Peter L., M.D. wrote: > I agree with using date of birth for making the determination of an > individual's age, as long as we have support for relative age for > concepts such as puberty, menopause, at an age of risk given their > family history of a malignance with a first degree relative whose > onset of illness was at a certain age. Relative age also includes > number of years since an event like an MI or a CABG which are both > medically relevant relative periods of time which are a type of age > (years since event) with clinical relevance. > > Warm regards, > > Peter > > Peter L. Elkin, MD > Professor of Medicine > Director, Laboratory of Biomedical Informatics > Department of Internal Medicine > Mayo Clinic, College of Medicine > Mayo Clinic, Rochester > (507) 284-1551 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2517 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.openehr.org/mailman/private/openehr-technical_lists.openehr.org/attachments/20050201/867c7508/attachment.bin>
