Feature Channels: Seniors

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A decade-long study of distal radius fracture in older adults revealed that personalized medicine catering to a patient’s individual needs and environment, not age or X-rays, should guide treatment options. The federally funded study is the most collaborative, intense effort to try and answer a 200-year puzzle about how to treat one of the most common fractures in older adults.

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Nearly one in three Americans between the ages of 50 and 80 put off an in-person appointment for medical care in 2020 because they were worried about exposure to the novel coronavirus, new national poll data show.

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NORC at the University of Chicago and AARP launched Foresight 50+, a new survey panel available to organizations looking for insights from older adults living in the United States.

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Until now, systemic biomarkers to measure exercise effects on brain function and that link to relevant metabolic responses were lacking. A study shows a memory biomarker, myokine Cathepsin B (CTSB), increased in older adults following a 26-week structured aerobic exercise training. The positive association between CTSB and cognition, and the substantial modulation of lipid metabolites implicated in dementia, support the beneficial effects of exercise training on brain function and brain health in asymptomatic individuals at risk for Alzheimer’s.

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Older adults with cerebral palsy are more likely to experience debilitating pains of musculoskeletal conditions, but researchers found they receive significantly less physical therapy for those ailments. The lead author says the results, while staggering, support their hypothesis that people with CP receive inequitable health care.

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Osteoporosis, often synonymous with aging, is a silent disease that targets anyone regardless of age and gender.

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How to Win Over Vaccine Skeptics: Live Expert Panel for May 20, 3pm ET

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A study of more than 3 million insured U.S. adult patients under 65 found that nearly 3% take immunosuppressive drugs that may elevate risk for severe COVID-19 symptoms and hospitalization if they became infected. There is growing evidence that immunosuppressive drugs may also reduce the COVID vaccine's efficacy.

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Seniors who are enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid are at risk for experiencing greater worsening of functional status following ICU hospitalization, according to research presented at the ATS 2021 International Conference.

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Approximately two-fifths of Medicare beneficiaries with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have limited access to pulmonary rehabilitation services due to their distance from rehab centers, according to research presented at the ATS 2021 International Conference. More than 24 million U.S. adults suffer from COPD, a smoking related disease.

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Heart failure (HF) – when the heart can’t pump enough blood and oxygen through the body – affects approximately 6.2 million adults in the United States and is the primary cause of hospitalization in the elderly. Unfortunately, older adults with heart failure often have poor outcomes resulting in reduced quality of life, high mortality and frequent rehospitalizations.

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Two years ago, the Veterans Affairs healthcare system (VA) began rolling out a new benefit, enabling Veterans to receive urgent care from a network of community providers – rather than visiting a VA emergency department or clinic. Progress toward expanding community care services for Veterans is the focus of a special supplement to the May issue of Medical Care. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics supports expanding medical nutrition therapy to provide Medicare beneficiaries with the care they need and deserve to live healthy, independent lives.

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Contrary to popular belief, a new study from the University of Chicago Medicine found the frequency of abdominal surgery in older adults is decreasing, especially among adults over the age of 85.

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People who feel younger have a greater sense of well-being, better cognitive functioning, less inflammation, lower risk of hospitalization and even live longer than their older-feeling peers. A study published by the American Psychological Association suggests one potential reason for the link between subjective age and health: Feeling younger could help buffer middle-aged and older adults against the damaging effects of stress.

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Collaborative research between the University of Kentucky (UK) and University of Southern California (USC) suggests that a noninvasive neuroimaging technique may index early-stage blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction associated with small vessel disease (SVD).

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Screening for even mild depressive symptoms before hip fracture repair may be helpful in predicting which patients are at higher risk of developing delirium after emergency surgery, according to results of a new study by researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine. The researchers say their findings also add to evidence that symptoms of depression and postoperative delirium may be an early indicator of Alzheimer’s disease, although those findings were not conclusive.

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Nearly one in five older adults say their mental health has gotten worse since the pandemic began in March 2020, and an equal percentage say their sleep has suffered in that time too. More than 1 in 4 say they’re more anxious or worried than before the COVID-19 era, according to a new poll of people age 50 to 80.

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Up to 95 percent are precluded from Mitral Repair Surgery

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New research out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, identified an inverse reaction between macular pigment levels and open-angle glaucoma in a 15-year follow-up cohort of older women participating in National Eye Institute (NEI) R01-funded Carotenoids in Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (CAREDS2) (2016 - 2019). The research is being presented at 2021 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), which is being hosted virtually.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins Medicine Media Relations is focused on disseminating current, accurate and useful information to the public via the media. As part of that effort, we are distributing our “COVID-19 Tip Sheet: Story Ideas from Johns Hopkins” every other Wednesday.

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A lack of in-person interactions is a primary driver for older people to use social media, according to a first of its kind study of older users by a researcher at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of the University of Alabama System.

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Taking a break from extreme heat, by visiting a cooling center for example, could help our cells protect themselves from damage, according to preliminary findings from a new study. The research, which focused on older people, suggests temporarily cooling down on a hot day helps cells maintain autophagy, a process cells use to rid themselves of dangerous protein buildups caused by stressors like extreme heat.

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A possible link between delirium and mortality in hospitalized older adults with acute heart failure exacerbation has been found by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

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You can probably guess that losing a job late in life affects your finances and your mental health. But did you know that it can also affect your weight?

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Radames and Ana Arocho were all smiles when they arrived on the white school bus, and their enthusiasm was contagious.

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Online ratings and reviews abound, and many have checked them, so providers and policymakers should pay attention.

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Using laboratory-grown roundworms as well as human and mouse eye tissue, University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers have identified a new potential mechanism for age-related macular degeneration—the leading cause of blindness among older adults.

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As the toll of COVID-19 continues to climb, newly released poll data suggest an opportunity to use the pandemic as a prompt for discussing and documenting older adults’ wishes for their care, if they get seriously ill or injured for any reason.

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Risks of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection for long-stay nursing home residents were mainly dependent on factors in their nursing homes and surrounding communities.

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In spring 2020, when the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic hit Finland, older adults drastically reduced their out-of-home activities.

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DALLAS – March 23, 2021 – It’s not just your legs and heart that get a workout when you walk briskly; exercise affects your brain as well. A new study by researchers at UT Southwestern shows that when older adults with mild memory loss followed an exercise program for a year, the blood flow to their brains increased. The results were published online today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

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A lot of the attention around “pandemic pets” has focused on families with children, but a new poll shows that older adults also got in on the trend. According to the National Poll on Healthy Aging, 10% of all people between the ages of 50 and 80 got a new pet between March 2020 and January 2021.

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The study used data collected from 44,817 participants enrolled in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), a large, national population-based study of health and aging. The participants completed questionnaires about adverse childhood experiences through telephone and face-to-face interviews between 2015 and 2018.

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Nearly one-third of adults age 65 and older who take thyroid hormone also take medications that are known to interfere with thyroid function tests, according to a study presented virtually at ENDO 2021, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting.

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The study found that the percentage of adults 65 and older who were prescribed a fall- risk-increasing drug climbed to 94% in 2017, a significant leap from 57% in 1999. The research also revealed that the rate of death caused by falls in older adults more than doubled during the same time period.

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Last fall, many older adults were on the fence about getting a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a poll taken in October. But a new poll taken in late January shows a large uptick in positive attitudes, including among people over 50 who are Black, Hispanic or in fair or poor health.

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People over 65 shouldn’t take three or more medicines that act on their brain and nervous system, experts strongly warn, because the drugs can interact and raise the risk of everything from falls to overdoses to memory issues. But a new study finds that 1 in 7 people with dementia who live outside nursing homes are taking at least three of these drugs.

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LifeBridge Health recently announced the launch of its “Care Happens Here” mobile unit, which will bring a wide range of healthcare testing and treatment services, including COVID-19 vaccinations, to vulnerable communities throughout central Maryland.

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Nursing homes with the largest proportions of non-White residents experience 3.3 times more COVID-19 deaths than do nursing homes with the largest proportions of White residents, according to a new study from the University of Chicago.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins Medicine Media Relations is focused on disseminating current, accurate and useful information to the public via the media. As part of that effort, we are distributing our “COVID-19 Tip Sheet: Story Ideas from Johns Hopkins” every other Wednesday.