CDC: Alzheimer’s, Dementia Rate Expected to Double by 2060

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THE SHARE OF AMERICANS with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias is expected to more than double by 2060 as people increasingly survive into older adulthood, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An estimated 5 million older adults had Alzheimer’s or a related dementia in 2014, and by 2060 that figure is expected to rise to 13.9 million, or about 3.3 percent of the U.S. population, according to the report, which evaluated health claims data for more than 28 million Medicare beneficiaries.

Alzheimer’s – the fifth-leading cause of death for adults 65 and older and the sixth-leading cause of death for Americans overall – destroys memory and cognitive functioning and poses a greater risk as people age.

Full story at US News

Mediterranean-style diet may lower women’s stroke risk

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One of the largest and longest-running efforts to evaluate the potential benefits of the Mediterranean-style diet in lowering risk of stroke found that the diet may be especially protective in women over 40 regardless of menopausal status or hormone replacement therapy, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke.

Researchers from the Universities of East Anglia, Aberdeen and Cambridge collaborated in this study using key components of a traditional Mediterranean-style diet including high intakes of fish, fruits and nuts, vegetables, cereal foods and potatoes and lower meat and dairy consumption.

Study participants (23,232 white adults, 40 to 77) were from the EPIC-Norfolk study, the United Kingdom Norfolk arm of the multicenter European Prospective Investigation into Cancer study. Over a 17-year period, researchers examined participants’ diets and compared stroke risk among four groups ranked highest to lowest by how closely they adhered to a Mediterranean style diet.

Full story at Science Daily

Older Americans Act (OAA) State Program Performance Report (SPR) Redesign: Technical Documentation

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The Administration for Community Living (ACL) has recently completed redesigning the Older Americans Act (OAA) State Program Performance Report (SPR) and has almost finished development of a new, web-based tool for submission of those data.

The Older Americans Act Performance System (OAAPS) will be the new reporting tool the Administration for Community Living (ACL)/Administration on Aging (AoA) uses to monitor performance and collect information on Older Americans Act (OAA) Title III, VI (Chapters 3 and 4 grants) and VII programs. States and Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) will be able to submit their annual performance report data on OAA program participants, services, and expenditures either through uploading data files (based on a template to be provided by ACL) or entering directly inputting data into OAAPS. The system is expected to be completed in early 2019.

The resources and links below include details on the redesigned SPR, new and old data elements with definitions, and uploading files. Each resource includes a brief description of the document’s purpose and overall content.

Full story at acl.gov

Key molecule explains why bones weaken with age

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A first-of-its-kind study reveals that, as we age, levels of a certain molecule increase, which silences another molecule that creates healthy bone. It also suggests that correcting this imbalance may improve bone health, possibly offering new avenues for treating osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis affects around 200 million women worldwide.

One in 3 women and 1 in 5 men aged 50 and above are thought to experience a bone fracture in their lifetime as a result of osteoporosis.

In the United States, estimates indicate that 44 million people over 50 live with the condition, making it a major public health issue.

Full story at Medical News Today

Last year the flu was deadly. Here’s how you can fight it now

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The flu was everywhere last year. A Centers for Disease Control doctor cautioned that the last flu season proved to be one of the deadliest.

That’s why the CDC is urging people to act now, just before the October start of the 2018-19 flu season and get vaccinated. That advice comes even if you delayed a few months into the previous flu season and got vaccinated earlier this year.

Some of the age ranges for certain vaccines have been lowered and some vaccines were reformulated to better prevent currently circulating viruses.

Among the benefits of getting vaccinated for the flu: Getting a vaccine doesn’t mean you won’t get the flu, but if you do get sick it could be less severe, experts say.

Full story at Miami Herald

 

Top 5 Things to Know About Continuing Care Retirement Communities

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AMERICA HAS AN AGING population, and as such, more and more people are considering options for where and how they’ll live after retirement. Sorting through those choices and determining which is the best one for your particular situation can be challenging.

Continuing Care Retirement Communities are one option you may consider. Sometimes called life plan communities, CCRCs offer most anything older adults may need as they move through the stages of aging, says Andrew J. Carle, an adjunct professor in the department of health administration and policy and founding director of the program in senior housing administration at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. “The gist of it is they include the full continuum of care options,” meaning everything from independent or assisted living to memory care and skilled nursing care.

Not just focused on health care and assistance in daily living, CCRCs address the range of needs seniors will face after retirement and typically offer housekeeping and dining options, transportation, wellness and fitness programs, recreational activities and a wide range of social activities and outings for residents.

Full story at US Health News

New Data Chartbooks for National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants

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A new series of eight chartbooks is now available in the Data Sources section of ACL’s AGing Integrated Database (AGID) website about the National Survey of Older Americans Act (OAA) Participants.

The NSOAAP data provide ACL and the aging network with information on outcomes that demonstrate the effect and overall quality of Older Americans Act Title III services. Service recipient demographics, as well as health and well-being indicators are also collected. The 12th National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants (NSOAAP) was collected in 2017.

Some fun facts from the data:

  • More than 20% of Homemaker (31%), Case Management (26%), Transportation (22%), and Home-delivered Nutrition (32%) clients are 85 years old or older.
  • More than 95% of clients across all six services report that that the people who provide the services are courteous.

Full story at acl.gov

Senior Divorce: Now What?

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AMONG U.S. ADULTS AGES 50 and older, the divorce rate has roughly doubled since the 1990s, according to a Pew Research Center report. What has been called “gray” divorce is often attributed to the fact that people are living longer. But there are other factors at work driving this.

Why the Uptick?

The blessing and curse of a longer life is that many people are re-evaluating. The idea of staying in an unhappy situation for the sake of whomever and whatever is no longer appealing when faced with possibly 30 more years of life. People want to live that life.

There is a reduced stigma in society toward divorce, and baby boomers are no stranger to it. Plus, remarriages tend to not last as long as the first attempt. Among all adults 50 and older who divorced in 2015, 48 percent had been in their second or higher marriage.

Full story at US News

Patients with sepsis at higher risk of stroke, heart attack after hospital discharge

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Patients with sepsis are at increased risk of stroke or myocardial infarction (heart attack) in the first 4 weeks after hospital discharge, according to a large Taiwanese study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Sepsis accounts for an estimated 8 million deaths worldwide, and in Canada causes more than half of all deaths from infectious diseases.

Researchers looked at data on more than 1 million people in Taiwan, of whom 42 316 patients had sepsis, matched with control patients in the hospital and the general population. All sepsis patients had at least one organ dysfunction, 35% were in the intensive care unit and 22% died within 30 days of admission. In the total group of patients with sepsis, 1012 had a cardiovascular event, 831 had a stroke and 184 had a myocardial infarction within 180 days of discharge from hospital. Risk was highest in the first 7 days after discharge, with more than one-quarter (26%) of myocardial infarction or stroke occurring in the immediate period and 51% occurring within 35 days.

Full story at Science Daily

Celebrating 50 Years of the Architectural Barriers Act

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As chair of the U.S. Access Board, I had the privilege of participating in an event today celebrating the anniversary of the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA) of 1968 and the fifty years of progress it helped spark.

Before the ABA was passed, accessibility standards were often inconsistent — and just as often ignored. The American National Standards Institute developed the first accessibility standards in 1961 with the help of Easter Seals and the research of the University of Illinois. Many states used these early standards to develop accessibility requirements in their building codes. However, other states adopted access requirements that ranged from lax to nearly nonexistent. This resulted in great discrepancies in accessible design requirements from state to state, and in some cases, from city to city.

This had real life impacts. It meant that a wheelchair user could easily go to the post office in one town but not in a nearby state or community. The same problem existed with respect to sidewalks, entrances, bathroom stalls, paths of travel, signage, and everything else that makes a building accessible.

Full story at acl.gov