Hello Joy:
You could refer to the people as "born before the "eighties" or before the "nineties".
You could refer to the people as "born during the decade of the "eighties" or the decade of the "nineties".
I think that you may be looking for a specific convention that will serve for this.
There may not be a convention where you expect one. I know how you must be thinking.
Our English does have circumstances like this where some convention would be a real convenience, but there is no such convention.
So you might just have to say; "born in the "eighties".
Sometimes you will see a phrasing like this: "He is a child of the Sixties."
Other phrases would be like this: "Born in the latter half of the Twentieth Century."
(1951 to 2000)
If I can be of further help to you, just ask, as these are puzzling sometimes, I know.