Category Archives: Old Age

Books On Aging: “Old Man Country – My Search For Meaning Among The Elders” (Thomas R. Cole)

From a NextAvenue.org online review:

Old Man Country Thomas R. Cole 2019Am I Still a Man?

Masculinity is not a natural collection of individual traits but, rather, a cultural story, a plot or a script by which men are judged and judge themselves. One problem is that this script for masculinity stops at midlife. For most old men in American society, there are no landmarks of achievement or value; no lighthouse guiding one’s moral compass; no employment office with the sign “old men wanted.” There is only the province of retirement — a barren place often marked by an absence of wealth, prestige and personal meaning.

Do I Still Matter?

At least since the institutionalization of retirement in the mid-20th century, old men have often felt marginalized, useless or invisible. Retirement is a primary source of depression for those whose identities and self-esteem have depended on being productive, earning a living and being engaged with others in the workplace. Employment and volunteer work are often less possible for men who have reached their 80s.

What Is the Meaning of My Life?

Because our society provides old people with no widely shared meanings or norms by which to live, the task of finding significance in later life falls to individuals in their relationships with family and community.

Meaning is partly a matter of love and of relevance. If I love and am loved, my life has significance. Meaning is also a moral question: Have I lived a good life by my own lights? Did I, and do I, measure up to my own expectations and to the standards of my family, religion, community and nation?

Am I Still Loved?

Love, of course, means many things. There is love of God. There is love that comes from God or a Divine Being or Beings — love that carries existential meaning. It is the kind of love Ram Dass received from his guru Neem Karoli Baba, who inspired him to live a life of loving service on the path toward merging with Brahman, the ultimate reality in Hinduism.

To read more: https://www.nextavenue.org/questions-older-men-ask-themselves/?hide_newsletter=true&utm_source=Next+Avenue+Email+Newsletter&utm_campaign=1eb08d4dfa-12.10.2019_Tuesday_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_056a405b5a-1eb08d4dfa-166479103&mc_cid=1eb08d4dfa&mc_eid=6cab05fae0

Health Studies: Aspirin Use 3+ Times Per Week Reduces “All-Cause” Cancers In Older Adults (JAMA)

From a JAMA Open Network online release:

JAMAThis cohort study included 146 152 individuals from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial and found that aspirin use 3 or more times per week was associated with reduced risk of all-cause, cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, and colorectal cancer mortality.

Importance  Aspirin use has been associated with reduced risk of cancer mortality, particularly of the colorectum. However, aspirin efficacy may be influenced by biological characteristics, such as obesity and age. With the increasing prevalence of obesity and conflicting data regarding the effect of aspirin in older adults, understanding the potential association of aspirin use with cancer mortality according to body mass index (BMI) and age is imperative.

Objectives  To investigate the association of aspirin use with risk of all-cause, any cancer, gastrointestinal (GI) cancer, and colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality among older adults and to perform an exploratory analysis of the association of aspirin use with mortality stratified by BMI.

Design, Setting, Participants  This cohort study evaluated aspirin use among participants aged 65 years and older in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial at baseline (November 8, 1993, to July 2, 2001) and follow-up (2006-2008). Analysis began in late 2018 and was completed in September 2019.

To read more: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2756258

Politics: “Baby Boomers Versus Millennials” Battle Brewing In Great Britain

From a The Atlantic online article:

Willetts had stumbled onto one of the great divides of modern politics: young versus old. In Britain, age is now a better predictor of voting intention than social class. Overall, the Boomers voted for Brexit in 2016 and the Conservatives in 2017; their Millennial children voted Remain and Labour. The single biggest error that Theresa May, the prime minister in the lead-up to the 2017 election, made during that process was to float the idea that older people might have to contribute more to the spiraling costs of their own retirement care. The “dementia tax” prompted an immediate, ferocious response, and May backed down.

 

That is not an isolated example. A guiding principle of politics in Britain, and elsewhere in the West, is: What Boomers want, Boomers get. Working-age benefits, for example, have been frozen since the 2015 budget, but the state pension has consistently risen. (At this election, Britain’s two main parties have both promised to keep increasing pensions; Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour has also pledged £58 billion ($74.7 billion) to Boomer women affected by the rise in the female state pension age from 60 to 66.

generation-pinched-book-launch-for-the-second-edition-of-the-pinch-5-1024

 

The debate is also about so much more than abstract disagreements over policy and government funding. Caring for the elderly, for example, becomes wrapped up in assertions of “just deserts”—I’ve worked hard all my life and paid my taxes—and fears about money-grubbing children selling off their parents’ houses. It is also, like taxes on inheritance, a subject that prods at many people’s deep desire to pass something on to their offspring.

To read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/11/britain-election-boomers/602680/

Healthcare: Geriatric Assessment Helps Select Proper Treatments For Cancer In Elderly Patients

From an NPR online article:

NPR Health NewsMore than 60% of cancers in the U.S. occur in people older than 65. As the population grows older, so will the rate of cancer among seniors. The cancer incidence in the elderly is expected to rise 67% from 2010 to 2030, according to a 2017 study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Yet many oncologists don’t have geriatric training.

“When the doctor saw how physically active and mentally sharp my father was at 89 years of age, but that he had several chronic, serious medical problems, including end stage kidney disease, she didn’t advise him to have aggressive treatment like the first time around,” says Griggs, who lives in Rochester, N.Y.

Geriatric assessment is an approach that clinicians use to evaluate their elderly patients’ overall health status and to help them choose treatment appropriate to their age and condition. The assessment includes questionnaires and tests to gauge the patients’ physical, mental and functional capacity, taking into account their social lives, daily activities and goals.

To read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/11/23/714300273/a-cancer-care-approach-tailored-to-the-elderly-may-give-better-results?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20191124&utm_term=4246040&utm_campaign=health&utm_id=46633831&orgid=

Crime And The Elderly: “The $340,000 Robocall Scam” (WSJ Podcast)

It started with a phone call. In a week, a scammer would take Nina Belis’s life savings. WSJ’s Sarah Krouse explains why robocalls persist: Because sometimes they work.

Website: https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal

The Aging Workplace: Baby Boomers Are Fastest Growing Segment Of Labor Force (GlassDoor)

From a GlassDoor.com online posting:

Baby Boomers fastest growing workforce“Senior citizens today are healthier, more engaged, and working longer than past generations,” says Chamberlain. “A ‘gray wave’ of senior citizens will be impacting the workforce in coming years, both in the United States and the United Kingdom.”

Mature employees and job seekers bring a vast skillset and tremendous experience to open jobs, combined with a strong professional network that rivals any social-media-savvy Gen Zer. And despite the preconceptions of older workers, reports show they are just as open to learning and development as their young peers.

Move over, Gen Z and Millennials. The Baby Boomer generation, those born between 1944 and 1964, are the fastest-growing segment of the labor force in the U.S. and they are catching the eye of recruiters in every industry.

Read report: https://www.glassdoor.com/research/app/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/Job_Trends_2020-Glassdoor_FINAL.pdf

According to Glassdoor’s Chief Economist Dr. Andrew Chamberlain in the newly released “Job & Hiring Trends 2020” report, the 65+ demographic is working longer than past generations and shows no signs of retiring for good.

To read more: https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/baby-boomers-becoming-the-fastest-growing-workforce/

Senior Housing: Baby Boomers Choosing To Stay In Own Homes Threatens New Facilities

From a Wall Street Journal online article:

US Census BureauThe rise of technologies that help the elderly stay in their homes threatens to upend one of commercial real estate’s biggest bets: Aging baby boomers will leave their residences in droves for senior housing.

Developers and senior-housing companies have spent billions of dollars over the past five years to build facilities that provide housing, food, medical care and assistance for the elderly.

While these properties have been filling up with people born during the Depression or World War II era, real-estate investors are eagerly eyeing the massive baby-boomer generation: 72 million people born between 1946 and 1964, or about one in five Americans. Their needs would require hundreds of thousands of new units, if previous demand patterns persist.

But this wager on elderly care is falling short of expectations, and there are concerns that it could become one of the biggest real-estate miscalculations in recent memory, some analysts suggest.

To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/boomers-want-to-stay-home-senior-housing-now-faces-a-budding-glut-11573554601

On Aging: A Look At Friendships “Changing” At The End Of Life (Atlantic)

From a The Atlantic online article:

How Friendships Change at the End of Life - The Atlantic - Illustration by Wenjia TangBeing with people at the end of life is very intense work. You are regularly seeing a part of life that a lot of people don’t see, or see very rarely. How do you feel that affects your relationships generally and your friendship specifically?

People become frightened at the end of life. Sometimes I see them moving away from friends as they get sicker. Once people get past that fear of what’s going on, they can be friends again.

Every week, The Friendship Files features a conversation between The Atlantic’s Julie Beck and two or more friends, exploring the history and significance of their relationship.

This week, she talks with two women who met through the nontheistic religion of Ethical Culture and have spent a significant amount of time ministering to aging and dying members of their congregation. They discuss how friendship changes at the end of life, and how they work to foster connection and community for members of all ages.

To read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/11/how-friendship-changes-end-life/601204/

Health: Asymptomatic Bacteriuria Diagnosis In Older Patients Should Not Require Antibiotics

From a New York Times online article:

Asymtomatic Bacteriuria DefinitionAt Dr. Soong’s hospital, withholding the results of urine cultures, unless doctors actually called the microbiology lab to request them, reduced prescriptions for asymptomatic bacteriuria to 12 percent from 48 percent of non-catheterized patients, with no loss of safety.

“The extra step of having the clinician call eliminated a lot of frivolous testing,” Dr. Soong said.

In patients who have none of the typical symptoms of a urinary tract infection — no painful or frequent urination, no blood in the urine, no fever or lower abdominal tenderness — lab results detecting bacteria in the urine don’t indicate infection and thus shouldn’t trigger treatment.

Older people, and nursing home residents in particular, often have urinary systems colonized by bacteria; they will have a positive urine test almost every time, but they’re not sick.

To read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/health/urine-tests-elderly.html

Harvard’s “Housing America’s Older Adults 2019” Study Highlights Increasing Housing Cost Burdens For The 65+

From a Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies report:

As both the number and share of older households in the United States increase to unprecedented levels, inequalities are becoming more evident. Within the 65-and-over age group, most recent income gains have gone to the highest earners, and the number of households with housing cost burdens has reached an all-time high. Ensuring that middle- and lower-income households in this age range have the means to live affordably and safely in their current homes or move to other suitable housing will be a growing challenge.

Over the Next 20 Years, Households in Their 80s Will Be the Fastest-Growing Age Group Harvard

Meanwhile, many households in the 50–64 year-old age group have not recovered from the Great Recession, leaving them with lower incomes and homeownership rates than their predecessors at similar ages. For the nearly 10 million households in this age group that are cost burdened, ensuring financial and housing security in retirement will be a struggle.

 

https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Harvard_JCHS_Housing_Americas_Older_Adults_2019.pdf