Aging News

Public Policy & Aging Report
A publication of the National Academy on an Aging Society, a policy institute of The Gerontological Society of America
December 10, 2008 - Edited by Robert B. Hudson, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Social Welfare Policy at Boston University’s School of Social Work, this landmark report includes four articles that provide an “updated and informed assessment of where the Older Americans Act and the Aging Network stand in the face of pressing demographic, economic, and health care issues.” The report documents the evolution of the Network and the significant transformations currently underway as a result of various state and federal initiatives, including Aging and Disability Resource Centers, Evidence-Based Prevention Programs, Cash and Counseling, and the Nursing Home Diversion Modernization Grant Program which “herald the front and central place the network is to play in the world of home and community-based care.”
Click here for more information

Countdown to DTV
Administration on Aging (AoA) DTV enews
December 10, 2008 - U.S. Assistant Secretary for Aging Secretary Josefina G. Carbonell urges everyone to take action soon to prepare themselves and their older family members for the Digital TV Transition (DTV) which is scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009. “We are 70 days from the biggest change in TV since colorization. The transition from analog to digital will make our TV picture quality better and with more options, but more importantly, it will free up valuable spectrum space for use by emergency responders to communicate with each other should the need arise. I urge everyone to take appropriate steps now to prepare yourself and your older family members and friends to ensure that they remain connected after February 17, 2009.”
Click here for more information

Civic Engagement in an Older America
November 3, 2008 - The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) received a five-year grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies in 2004 to advance research that addresses civic engagement and aging. The primary purpose of the “Civic Engagement in an Older America” project is to produce and promote research that will contribute to the development of more effective social institutions, programs, and policies that will increase older adults’ civic participation.
Click here for more information

Seniors Struggle In Weakening Economy
November 3, 2008 - A new report from the Urban Institute examines how the slumping stock market, falling housing prices, and weakening economy are having serious repercussions for older adults who are approaching retirement or already are retired. Older Americans have little time to recoup the values of their homes, 401(k) plans, and individual retirement accounts. While more of them are working to bolster their retirement incomes, the rising unemployment rate limits their prospects, researchers state.
Click here for more information

How Are People Feeling About Retirement?
November 3, 2008 - All Things Considered · We ask people around the country about their retirement concerns and whether and how the economic crisis has caused them to reconsider their retirement plans.
Click here for more information

Older White Caregivers Have Poorer Health Outcomes
November 3, 2008 - According to an article published in the October 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, poorer health outcomes were more likely among older white caregivers than black female caregivers who provide regular care or assistance for a child or who care for a disabled or sick adult.
Click here for more information

Over 80, It's Anyone's Race
November 3, 2008 - For Joy Johnson, winning her age group in last year's ING New York City Marathon was bittersweet. First place was nice, but her time had slipped to seven hours.
Click here for more information

Should a demand for change include 401(k) plans?
November 3, 2008 - The 401(k) retirement savings system has come under considerable scrutiny since the U.S. economic meltdown pushed stocks lower, costing retirement plans an estimated $2 trillion in the past 15 months. A number of economists are calling for changes to the current 401(k) savings system. Some proposals wouldn't affect workers much while others would force everyone to save and would have broad impact on the retirement planning industry.
Click here for more information

Depression-era seniors a source of wisdom in tough times
November 3, 2008 - As Americans worry about hard times, many are listening more closely to the stories of those who survived the Great Depression. "When the economy was booming, we never thought their struggles had much to do with our lives," said Helen Dennis, a consultant on aging. "But we're now realizing that the children of the Depression are the perfect people to tell us how to tighten our belts."
Click here for more information

'Internal Chatter' Limits Multitasking As People Age
November 3, 2008 - Morning Edition · It's not every brain scientist who explains her research using Shakespeare. But University of Michigan psychology professor Cindy Lustig describes brain development over a lifetime as a correlation with Shakespeare's "seven ages of man." Using behavioral tests and brain scans, Lustig and her collaborators, Drs. Randy Buckner and Denise Head, study how age affects the brain's ability to multitask. While the young child's brain is only capable of focusing on one thing at a time, as the brain develops it is able to switch between tasks quite quickly, reaching a multitasking peak in the 20s or 30s, says Lustig. Beyond that, the brain experiences "internal chatter" and has to work a lot harder to suppress distractions and maintain focus.
Click here for more information

Hunt for retirement jobs stepped up in bad economy
November 3, 2008 - CHICAGO - It sounds like an oxymoron, but the concept of working in retirement is fast becoming the norm for many older Americans - forced by dwindling financial resources and a recessionary economy to stay in or return to the job market. Longer lifespans and a desire to remain productive and connected already had begun pushing the number of older workers higher. Now the financial crisis is accelerating interest in working later, with career sites and organizations for seniors and older workers reporting a surge in job-hunting efforts.
Click here for more information

Hospice Chaplains Take Up Bedside Counseling
November 3, 2008 - Some of the hospice patients talk about their impending deaths, or about God. Most just talk about what people always talk about — unfinished business and unanswered questions: regrets over firing an employee 50 years ago; the pet no one has yet promised to adopt; feeling sick to death of being sick yet not ready to die. About Bach. “How did he dream up that music?” one woman asks. Listening to final inquiries like these has long been the domain of a family priest or rabbi. But for a growing number of Americans who do not know a member of the clergy, that bedside auditor is increasingly likely to belong to an emerging professional class known in the hospice world as a pastoral counselor or chaplain, who may or may not be a clergy member.
Click here for more information

Elderly fare better when included in decisions on treatment trade-offs
November 3, 2008 - Halting a medication that treats one ailment because it may worsen another is a treatment trade-off decision that elderly patients with multiple medical conditions would rather take part in, researchers at Yale School of Medicine report in a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Click here for more information

Older scientists publish more papers
November 3, 2008 - Age is no barrier to productivity. If the mind is the first to go, it doesn't seem to show up in the bibliography. A new study suggests that older scientists publish more than their younger counterparts.
Click here for more information

Stress affects older adults more than young adults
November 3, 2008 - Life can be stressful, whether you're an individual watching the stock market crash or a commuter stuck in traffic. A new study, forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science, examines how stress affects decision-making and finds that older adults alter their behavior more than young adults when under stress — particularly in situations involving risk.
Click here for more information

Docs may miss anxiety in older black patients
November 3, 2008 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When they see elderly patients, primary care physicians are less likely to spot anxiety as a health problem in black patients than in white patients, a study indicates.
Click here for more information

Socioeconomics play into lymphoma survival
November 3, 2008 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with a type of cancer known as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, or NHL, are less likely to get appropriate treatment, and more likely to die of the disease, if they fall into a lower rather than higher socioeconomic level, a study in the journal Cancer shows. NHL mortality was higher among black patients, Dr. Xianglin L. Du and his colleagues found, but once they accounted for socioeconomic status and treatment, the racial difference disappeared.
Click here for more information

Who are you calling elderly? 60 is the new 40
November 3, 2008 - Baby boomers living longer by keeping mind and body active - Those in the 60-and-older crowd are living longer and healthier lives than their parents by adhering to today’s doctrines of diet and keeping the mind and body active.
Click here for more information

More Alzheimer’s Risk for Hispanics, Studies Find
November 3, 2008 - Studies suggest that many Hispanics may have more risk factors for developing dementia than other groups, and a significant number appear to be getting Alzheimer’s earlier. And surveys indicate that Latinos, less likely to see doctors because of financial and language barriers, more often mistake dementia symptoms for normal aging, delaying diagnosis.
Click here for more information

Advocates address challenges of gay seniors
November 3, 2008 - Long overlooked by society at large, and even by younger gays, elderly gay men and lesbians are emerging as distinct community, getting more help and attention as they confront challenges that differ in many ways from their heterosexual counterparts. Advocacy groups say the estimated 2.5 million gay seniors in America are twice as likely to live alone, four times less likely to have adult children to help them, and far more fearful of discrimination from health care workers.
Click here for more information

State makes strides on behalf of the aging
November 3, 2008 - In just seven years, adults ages 60 and over will make up 20 percent to 29 percent of New York's general population. Already, nonprofit agencies are hard pressed to provide services amid these tough economic times when both the state and federal governments are reporting record deficits. The good news, though, is that the New York Office on Aging has been leading efforts to find new solutions to the challenges older citizens face.
Click here for more information

The Social Connectedness of Older Adults: A National Profile
May 29, 2008 - For decades, scholars have wrestled with the assumption that old age is characterized by social isolation. However, there has been no systematic, nationally representative evaluation of this possibility in terms of social network connectedness. In this article, we develop a profile of older adults’ social integration with respect to nine mensions of interpersonal networks and voluntary associations. We use new data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a population-based study of noninstitutionalized older Americans ages 57 to 85, conducted in 2005 to 2006. Results suggest that among older adults, age is negatively related to network size, closeness to network members, and number of non-primary-group ties. On the other hand, age is positively related to frequency of socializing with neighbors, religious participation, and volunteering. In addition, age has a U-shaped relationship with volume of contact with network members. These findings are inconsistent with the view that old age has a universal negative influence on social connectedness. Instead, life-course factors have divergent consequences for different forms of social connectedness. Indeed, some laterlife transitions, such as retirement and bereavement, may prompt greater connectedness. We conclude by urging increased dialogue between social gerontological and social network research.
Click here for more information