On Mar 25, 2009, at 9:20 AM, Pathak, Jyotishman, Ph.D. wrote:
I am trying to find an ontology/terminology which models different age groups of a person: infant, teenage, adult etc. I looked at SNOMED-CT, and noticed how a "Person" is categorized by age, but didn't really understand how "age" is associated -- for example, is an 18-year old considered a "pre-teen"?
Surely not pre-teen; if there is any controversy in the neighborhood I should think it would be over whether an 18 year old might be considered a "post-teen". Seems to me, however, that, unlike "infant" and "adult", there is absolutely no vagueness whatever in the meaning of "teenage". Anyone between 13 and 19, inclusive, is a teen by definition. The only objection that I can imagine someone giving to this is that the meaning of "teenager" has become unhooked from its etymology and now indicates a "stage of life" that necessarily precedes adulthood. That is certainly not the case in my own idiolect.