GUIDELINES WITH AGES

• Arabic numerals are always used to express age.
  For example:
  The patient is a l5-year-old male who ...
• If age comes at the beginning of the sentence, it should be reframed.
  For example:
  Dictated statement: 15-year-old female came with bruise to the knee.
  Transcribed as: A 15-year-old female came with bruise to the knee.
• When age is preceded by a noun and is used as an adjective, it should be hyphenated.
  For example:
  A 7-year-old boy (Remember there should be no space between the hyphens.) Here boy is the noun with number of years as the adjective.
• So what happens when the age comes after a noun? In such phrases, the year is always in plural with addition of 's' and is written without use of hyphens and conversely when age precedes the noun as an adjectival phrase, year is singular with out an 's'.
  Here are the two examples again:
  A 15-year-old female came with bruise to the knee.
  This female who is 15 years old came with bruise to the knee.
• If age is expressed in fractions (like six and a half year old), then a virgule should be incorporated. It is used to express the fraction along with the whole number and joined to it with a hyphen online.
  For example:
  6-1/2-year-old patient is the correct way to transcribe.
• When age is referred to in decades, no apostrophe is used.
  For example:
  The patient's brother died in his 20s.