The Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA) will hold a free Virtual Educational Conference on June 16 designed to help families coping with loved ones with Alzheimer's disease during the current pandemic, reports NJ.com . Featured speakers with include Mehmet Oz, host of "The Dr. Oz Show," who will share his account of having his mother diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Topics will include staying healthy and safe as the country reopens, organizing a long-term care team during the crisis, and taking advantage of caregiving technology. "Knowledge is a useful and powerful tool that can help make any situation easier to navigate," said AFA CEO Charles J. Fuschillo Jr. "We want individuals who are caring for someone with Alzheimer's to know about the resources available to help them and steps that they can take to improve their loved one's care and quality of life."

U.S. assisted living communities this week received much-needed coronavirus aid from the federal government that was previously restricted to nursing communities, reports Bloomberg . The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) allocated $15 billion for providers that participate in certain state programs like Medicaid and have not yet received any aid. That opens access to some assisted-living communities, which had been barred from previous rounds because their residents do not rely on the federal Medicare program. Assisted-living residents have individual living spaces, which a study from the University of Washington in JAMA Internal Medicine found to be an advantage in dealing with the virus. Argentum has pushed for $20 billion in aid for its members, noting they serve similarly vulnerable people with much fewer resources than nursing communities. Nursing communities, which offer round-the-clock medical care and thus tend not to send residents to hospitals, constitute much of the country's COVID-19 deaths. The National Center for Assisted Living estimates that slightly less than 50 percent of U.S. assisted-living and residential-care communities will likely qualify for the latest round based on state Medicaid criteria. A HHS spokersperson said the agency "will provide relief funds to assisted-living providers that provide services to Medicaid enrollees,"with qualifying communities receiving at least 2 percent of total patient-care revenue.

University of Alberta computing scientists are developing an application to help healthcare personnel assess and manage pain in long-term care residents with dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases, reports Medical Dialogues . The app will digitize a pen-and-paper observational checklist that helps healthcare workers when assessing pain in those with dementia. "Our work is to develop an application for nurses to use as well as a back-end repository that stores and manages this data safely," said Alberta's Eleni Stroulia. "This new research demonstrates the promising results from our initial trial." On an individual level, the app will allow healthcare staff to see how pain and pain management techniques are effective or ineffective, informing care decision-making. On a broader scale, widespread use may enhance the quality and efficacy of care that people with dementia receive. "When we have this kind of data, we can build models to understand the impact of different interventions," explained Stroulia. "This is what can change policy and care in the long-term — evidence-based policy that changes the state of how we practice medicine."

The nonprofit organization ElderHelp of San Diego is helping seniors get through the pandemic and recent rioting, reports CBS 8 San Diego . Hundreds of volunteers deliver food to seniors in 40 San Diego County zip codes, according to ElderHelp Transportation Coordinator Chris Mirsky. He describes the volunteers as an "amazing group of people who have stepped up in an absolutely incredible way." The nonprofit also is collecting food donations for seniors. ElderHelp Care Coordination Manager Claudia Gavin says the food is boxed up and bagged, then delivered to 850 older adults. "They should be staying at home anyway but now more so than ever they are afraid to go out even during those senior-specific shopping hours," she notes.

A report from researchers at The Irish Longitudinal Study on Aging (TILDA) investigates the online habits of adults 50 and older in Ireland, according to Medical Xpress . The work is part of an initiative to refocus TILDA's findings to provide a better understanding of relevant aspects of Ireland's senior population and help inform policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data indicates that 71 percent of adults aged 50 and up (1 million) have home Internet access, which decreases with age. Just 38 percent of people 80 and older have home Internet access, versus 86 percent of those 50 to 69 and 66 percent of those 70 to 79. Meanwhile, 68 percent of those 50 and up go online daily (700,000 adults), while 85 percent (870,000 adults) do so at least once a week. Moreover, 64 percent of this population (about 900,000 people) have access to smartphones and tablets — and 79 percent use the Internet for information sharing, 72 percent for sending and receiving e-mails, 43 percent for audio and video calls online, and 40 percent for social media interactions. Thirty percent of solitary older adults lack Internet access, while 74 percent in urban areas have home Internet access versus 67 percent of rural residents. "In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Internet provides a valuable resource for many to maintain social interactions, obtain information, access support services, and engage in online commerce," said Trinity College Dublin's Paul Doody.

The Illinois Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association discussed the US POINTER study, an investigation into how lifestyle changes affect Alzheimer's disease, slated for completion in 2023, reports WSIU . The study will focus on a combination of diet, physical activity, social activity, and cognitive exercises, based on a Finnish initiative that uncovered benefits in thinking and memory among participants. The U.S. version is being modified for the United States' diverse population. The Alzheimer's Association's Carl Hill said African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately affected by Alzheimer's and dementia. "What are those factors that hang together to create and sustain disparities and Alzheimer's and other dementia?" he asked. "We know that culture impacts lifestyle and environment impacts lifestyle, so those are important to consider." The POINTER study will concentrate on two locations in Chicago, while concerns about COVID-19 have forced the study to pause for the time being.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an opportunity to redesign the U.S. model for long-term supports and services (LTSS) for older adults, reports Forbes . The current model cannot deliver adequate care for frail seniors due to chronic underfunding, and such services need to be well-coordinated and tailored to individual needs. A repurposed model could start with frail older adults choosing the care setting and supports that would help them live the best life possible, with backing from family and a case manager. LTSS would be well integrated with medical treatment, with no regulatory or payment limitations, and through a financial model that incentivizes strong chronic care management. This could be delivered through managed care plans like Medicare Advantage, fully integrated programs such as the Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, or special needs plans. It also might be facilitated in traditional Medicare through Medicare Supplement insurance. Finally, a public long-term care insurance program could supplement out-of-pocket costs, especially for persons with true catastrophic costs that few private long-term care insurance policies reimburse.

A study published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society has associated statin treatment with higher levels of insulin resistance, reports Endocrinology Advisor . Study participants included 609 individuals 71 years old on average, of whom 152 were statin users and 457 were not. Statin users exhibited higher homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) levels than nonusers, as well as significantly higher abdominal aortic calcification scores. However, the linkage between statin use and higher abdominal aortic calcification lost significance when stratified by propensity score. When examining statins effect's based on the hydrophilicity or lipophilicity of the particular drug, HOMA-IR was higher in participants receiving hydrophilic and lipophilic statins. Seventy-three percent of hydrophilic statin users in this cohort were receiving rosuvastatin, which has been tied to the highest risk for type 2 diabetes versus other statins. The investigators concluded that statins "may have unintended consequences related to glucose homeostasis that could be relevant in healthy aging. In those individuals with risk factors for diabetes, consideration for choosing non-lipophilic statins and avoidance of rosuvastatin and lipophilic statins may provide the intended cardiovascular protection without the increased incidence of insulin resistance."

A new analysis of the Framingham Heart Study in JAMA Neurology found that the frequency of brain bleeds has stabilized among most age groups over the last 30 years, but not among seniors 75 and older, reports Philly Voice . Usage of blood thinners tripled during the study period, but researchers suggested that their benefits may offset their risks by preventing blood clots. "Those therapies reduce the risk of ischemic strokes, which represent approximately nine of every 10 strokes, with intracerebral hemorrhages representing the other tenth," said the University of Texas Health San Antonio's Sudha Seshadri. The investigators said as people live longer, healthcare systems should expect more brain hemorrhages. "One of the possible explanations for why we saw more bleeds in older Framingham participants is that, by using these anticoagulant medications, we prevented adverse events that would potentially have killed them earlier in life," said Harvard Medical School Professor Vasileios-Arsenios Lioutas. "We prolonged their life expectancy and then, because we did, they were at risk to have a hemorrhage later in life." Seshadri said the most important finding is that intracerebral hemorrhages are growing in a demographic that is increasing each year. "We should find new means of prevention of these strokes, and at the same time, healthcare systems should be ready to treat more hemorrhages in the future," he recommended.

A meta-analysis of 15 studies on tai chi published in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing determined that the mind-body exercise can lift the mood and quality of life of older adults with cardiovascular disease, reports MinnPost . "There are physical benefits like improved balance, and it's good for mental health too," said University of Arizona Professor Ruth Taylor-Piliae. The studies focused on English- and German-language clinical trials in Asia, North America, and Europe over the last 10 years, covering 1,853 participants mainly in their 60s with high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure, or history of stroke. Generally, older adults assigned to tai chi courses reported significantly better quality of life and less depression and psychological strain at than those in control groups. The researchers did not find a statistically significant association between tai chi and reduced anxiety, possibly because few studies measured anxiety. Tai chi appears to yield different benefits to people with cardiovascular disease based on their diagnosis. For example, tai chi participants with coronary heart disease had significantly better psychological quality of life than the controls, while those with high blood pressure reported significantly better physical health quality of life. Meanwhile, tai chi participants with chronic heart failure did not see significant improvement in quality of life, but had less depression and psychological distress versus controls.