A University College London study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that more frequent Internet use improves the well-being of older adults, especially the more affluent and better educated, reports Medical Xpress . The researchers investigated the accounts of more than 9,000 people over 50 from 2012 to 2017. They observed a positive long-term effect of daily Internet use, while infrequent use was connected to declining life satisfaction among older people. Daily users experienced larger increases in life satisfaction scores than those who used the Internet weekly or never, and had the highest scores by the conclusion of the study. Yet mental well-being varied by Internet use type, the most common of which were "information access" and "communication," with 68 percent and 66 percent of participants reporting use of these two types, respectively. People who went online for communication and keeping in touch with others were more likely to report less depression and better life satisfaction than those who did not. However, those who went online for information access, specifically job-searching, had worse life satisfaction compared to those who did not. Subjects in the wealthiest quantile were most likely to go online daily, while those in the highest educational and occupational groups benefited more mentally from frequent use than those in the lowest groups.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he is considering opening up assisted living and nursing communities to visits amid a rising death toll from the coronavirus, reports the Associated Press . His comments followed a dialogue with hospital doctors, and he said there are rapid tests to ensure visitors are not infected. "If you have the ability to do that, then I think that we need to start to talk about visitation again," DeSantis said, emphasizing the isolation that long-term care community residents are suffering in quarantine. The state has prohibited nursing community visits since mid-March, and banned the return of residents testing positive for the virus to communities that lack an isolation ward. Staff also must be tested every two weeks, though current backlogs in receiving testing results has limited this policy in some cases. Jay Solomon with Sarasota's Aviva senior living campus agrees with DeSantis' concerns about loneliness and isolation, but opposes reopening at this time. "Senior living communities can only open after the state takes more direct action in controlling the spread of COVID and we see the state-wide positivity rate drop to under 5 percent in comparison to the 12.7 percent we are at today," he contended.

A Harris Poll survey on behalf of the Nationwide Retirement Institute found that 24 percent of U.S. baby boomers say the pandemic has forced them to postpone their planned retirement, reports Money . The official national unemployment rate stands at 11.1 percent, up from 3.7 percent at this time last year, and real gross domestic product plummeted at an annual rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter. Fifteen percent of pre-retirees plan to take Social Security later than expected due to the pandemic, while 8 percent plan to claim their benefits earlier. Yet many Americans lack a basic understanding of Social Security, according to another Harris Poll survey conducted just before the pandemic. For example, nearly 33 percent of boomers and older respondents incorrectly believe that benefits claimed early will automatically appreciate when they reach full retirement age. The conviction that Social Security will run out of money also may spur boomers and older consumers to claim benefits earlier than they would otherwise, but Social Security will not go bankrupt. Ongoing payroll tax revenue ensures that the program will remain solvent even if the pandemic does some damage.

Legislation currently being crafted seeks to help senior Americans avoid costs for falling to sign up for Medicare at the correct time, reports the Motley Fool . The Beneficiary Enrollment Notification and Eligibility Simplification (BENES) Act would help them avoid penalties for late Medicare Part B enrollment, as well as close gaps in health coverage. The bill would set up mechanisms to better communicate with seniors about enrollment as they approach Medicare eligibility age; let seniors sign up late for Part B without incurring penalties under special circumstances; and oblige Medicare coverage to begin the month following enrollment for certain seniors who would otherwise face a delay. Earlier this month, former administrators from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent a letter to congressional leaders asking them to approve the BENES Act, while the House's Energy and Commerce Committee took action to advance the bill on July 15. Bipartisan support also betters the chance of eventual passage.

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine tested a fall injury intervention tailored to individuals and administered by specially trained nurses, reports the U.S. National Institute on Aging . More than 5,400 participants 70 and older were enrolled at 86 primary care practices across 10 U.S. healthcare systems. The older participants had been injured from a fall, had fallen at least twice in the previous year, or were afraid of falling due to difficulty walking or balancing. Volunteers were initially screened for fall injury risk factors, including problems with walking and balance, falling risks in the home, vision difficulties, problems with feet or shoes, weakened bones, certain drugs, and low blood pressure when standing. Specially trained nurses helped half of the participants to identify risk factors and work to reduce one to three of them, while the rest were controls. Controls got an informational pamphlet on falls and were encouraged to discuss fall prevention with primary care doctors, who also received the risk factor screening results. The overall rate of serious fall injuries was much lower about 5 percent than expected, while the gap in the rate of serious fall injuries between the two groups was small. "Measures that may reduce risk in the setting of a clinical trial can be less effective in the real world, where daily challenges such as being unable to afford transportation, or the cost of follow-up care, may delay or prevent access for patients," noted Shalender Bhasin of Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Last week's inaugural Village Fair at Hoosier Christian Village in Brownstown, Ind., was well received, reports the Seymour Tribune . With the Jackson County Fair cancelled due to the pandemic, staff at the assisted living community staged a smaller version, offering similar fare like the "frog jumping frenzy," which took place just outside the facility. Residents also enjoyed midway-style games including goldfish games, which used Goldfish crackers. Other entertainments included cotton candy and snow cones, a display of antique tractors, pork burgers donated by Brownstown Central Future Farmers of America, and animals to interact with. Last year's Jackson County Fair Queen Jessica Blevins also visited residents, who were seated inside at the windows, as did Kristye Lewis and her miniature therapy horse. Blevins remarks, "People in nursing homes, this has to be so difficult for them. I just want to try and help make them feel better."

Workers' most common requests in order to feel safe at work are social distancing measures (51 percent), detailed cleaning protocols (45 percent), personal protective equipment requirements (41 percent), coronavirus testing offered to employees (41 percent), and temperature/symptom screening (41 percent), according to an American Staffing Association study cited by Forbes . The ASA Workforce Monitor study found most workers are satisfied with their employer's response to the pandemic, specifically the office cleanliness protocols (85 percent), telework policies (82 percent), and communications about the pandemic (81 percent). However, across all generations, male employees are more likely to be satisfied than their female counterparts, and the younger the employee, the less likely he/she is to be satisfied. ASA President and CEO Richard Wahlquist advises, "Outreach to employees can't be a one-time effort or shared through just one channel. Effective communications are accomplished through regular, consistent information exchanges and dialogue across all available employee-directed mediums."

A study in the Journal of Neuroscience found that presbycusis — age-related hearing loss — is caused by damage to hair cells in the inner ear that render sound vibrations as electrical signals transmitted to the brain by the auditory nerve, reports Gilmore Health News . The researchers examined 120 human inner ears via postmortem quantitative microscopic analysis of the cells and fibers. The results indicated that greater hair cell loss was associated with high-frequency cochlear regions versus low-frequency cochlear regions. Past animal studies suggested that presbycusis is caused by loss of structure in the stria vascularis. Also significant is the finding that hair cell loss in aging humans is worse than in animal models of presbycusis. "Our study upends the dogma about the major cause of age-related hearing loss," said Harvard Medical School's Pei-zhe Wu. "Documenting the dominant role of progressive hair cell loss in the hearing impairment of normal aging means that the millions who suffer from this condition could benefit from the hair cell regenerative therapies that are the focus of ongoing research across the world."

Pymnts surveys indicate that both baby boomers and seniors are transitioning to e-commerce, which will likely continue until at least a COVID-19 vaccine is developed. The largest share of boomers and seniors — 59.7 percent — said the pandemic did not alter their shopping habits, which means the remaining 40.3 percent have made at least some modifications. Moreover, 21.7 percent of seniors and boomers said their migration to online shopping is permanent, compared to 11.8 percent who said the change is temporary. Consumers across all age groups listed fear of infection, fear of infecting someone else, and fear of dying as their top pandemic-related anxieties — and while they also said digital channels are crucial to avoiding the virus, older consumers are even more convinced of this. About 47 percent of boomers and seniors said they view choosing merchants based on their digital capabilities as a way to avoid infection, versus 41.5 percent of Generation X and 38.6 percent of bridge millennials. Boomers and seniors also tend to fill the "safety shifters" category of consumers who have adopted digital channels to purchase groceries and other products, and are more concerned about contracting the virus than others.

Several studies have demonstrated an experimental blood test's accuracy in distinguishing between people with and without Alzheimer's disease, raising hopes of a simple pathway for diagnosing the disorder, reports the Associated Press . Some of the results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association . The test identified people with Alzheimer's compared to no dementia or other types of dementia with accuracy ranging from 89 percent to 98 percent. The test concentrates on tau protein, determining that the p-tau217 variant is a more reliable indicator than amyloid. In a Lund University study, the p-tau217 test surpassed other measures for indicating who had Alzheimer's as verified by brain scans, with comparable accuracy to the scans and some spinal tests. Meanwhile, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found the test helped distinguish people with Alzheimer's from those with frontotemporal lobar degeneration with 96 percent accuracy. A Washington University in St. Louis study also found p-tau217 superior to other indicators for revealing which subjects had plaques in the brain. The U.S. National Institute on Aging's Eliezer Masliah said the new test "appears to be even more sensitive and more reliable" than previous methods, but larger and more diverse population studies are necessary.