A study in eLife suggests two biomarkers of brain function could help determine why people with normal hearing may have difficulty following conversations in noisy environments, and possibly assist in developing next-generation clinical testing for this deficit, reports ScienceDaily . The researchers reviewed over 100,000 records covering 16 years, and found that approximately 10 percent of persons who visited an audiology clinic at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary complained of hearing difficulty, despite normal audiograms. Follow-up tests combined measurements of ear canal electroencephalogram signals with changes in eye pupil diameter, which enabled the investigators to identify subjects that struggled to follow speech. "If our ability to converse in social settings is part of our hearing health, then the tests that are used have to go beyond the very first stages of hearing and more directly measure auditory processing in the brain," said Harvard Medical School Professor Daniel B. Polley.

Researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) School of Medicine hope a two-year study will help identify signs of nascent dementia in seniors from their financial behavior, reports Alzheimer's News Today . "We're looking at the connection between very early cognitive decline — not diagnosed and not even detected — and financial behavior over the course of a year," said OSHU's Kathy Wild. Fraud detection company EverSafe will supply software to the study's 140 participants, their families, and the OSHU team for a year. The software flags anomalies in financial behavior in real time, and submits weekly reports on each participant's alerts to the researchers. If the alerts suggest a participant is about to become a victim of fraud or is engaging in other troubling financial behavior, Wild's team informs the participant and their family. Participants take cognitive tests at the start and conclusion of the study so the researchers can identify any deterioration in memory, judgment, reasoning, or the ability to think about multiple topics simultaneously. The team hopes analysis of EverSafe's participant data will enable them to categorize six markers that could indicate early cognitive decline.

Some U.S. colleges are offering programs to tap the under-resourced senior market to offset diminished or flattening enrollment, reports Education Dive . Programs at Stanford University, the University of Notre Dame, and elsewhere are niche and very expensive, yet such projects promise to reap dividends as colleges seek additional and more diverse revenue channels from which to acquire new alumni, or revive relationships that could lead to donations or partnerships. Experts recommend that these initiatives should aim to further intergenerational learning on campus and uphold older learners' unique needs — by offering participants room to grow, for example. "When adults come into the program, they oftentimes think that what they're good at and what they are able to understand is very narrow," said founding director of Notre Dame's Inspired Leadership Initiative Thomas Schreier Jr. However, he added that those enrollees "all believe that they have a next act." Washington University in St. Louis Professor Brian Carpenter suggested that colleges developing immersive learning programs for older adults should first evaluate the market of the kinds of students they want to attract, and ask participants what they want the program to give them.

A study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease demonstrated that lithium administered in a formulation that facilitates passage to the brain can halt symptoms of Alzheimer's disease progression, reports ScienceDaily . "Microdoses of lithium at concentrations hundreds of times lower than applied in the clinic for mood disorders were administered at early amyloid pathology stages in the Alzheimer's-like transgenic rat," said McGill University's Claudio Cuello. "These results were remarkably positive. . . . They stimulated us to continue working with this approach on a more advanced pathology." By applying the same formulation at later stages of the disease to their transgenic rat modeling neuropathological aspects of Alzheimer's disease, the researchers learned that pathology reduction and better cognition can be realized at more advanced stages, similar to late preclinical stages of the disease — when amyloid plaques have accrued in the brain. "Our findings show that microdoses of lithium in formulations such as the one we used, which facilitates passage to the brain through the brain-blood barrier while minimizing levels of lithium in the blood, sparing individuals from adverse effects, should find immediate therapeutic applications," Cuello said.

A study on dementia screening by Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine sought to gauge the advantages and drawbacks of testing older adults for cognitive impairment at the primary care level, reports Being Patient . The researchers considered dementia screenings in rural, suburban, and urban primary care clinics throughout Indiana. The main conclusion was that primary care dementia screening did not elevate anxiety or depression among the people studied — and there was no apparent harm in screening for Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. "Dementia screening provides awareness for the subject and their family, allowing them to take action — including advance care planning," said IU's Nicole Fowler. However, screening did not necessarily improve the rate of people following up for diagnosis or care, as 70 percent of participants declined follow-up assessments. There was a decrease in hospitalizations among those who did follow up, versus people who were not screened and later had cognitive impairment. "For a number of reasons, including the lack of drugs to treat dementia and the stigma around the condition, people are hesitant to engage in the next steps of the process after screening," Fowler noted. "The healthcare system needs to help bridge this gap and encourage people to follow up on the results of screening tests as they would for any other condition."

A New Jersey lawmaker has proposed legislation to help residents save for retirement and for seniors to remain in the state amid rising costs of living, reports WCBS 880 . Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said his Senior Housing IRA Act "will allow seniors who sell their home to avoid paying the capital gains tax if they save those gains for their retirement in a Roth IRA." The measure also would protect the sale profits from state taxes. Gottheimer said it is imperative that New Jersey covers the cost of such an initiative. "I think the state can't afford to have its seniors keep leaving," he noted. Towns in New Jersey also would stand to save money should the legislation become law, because seniors are less of a drain on local resources. According to recent studies, more residents moved out of New Jersey in 2019 than any other state.

Wake Forest University researchers will use a $2.9 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to test whether wearing a weighted vest can replace traditional resistance training to help maintain bone density and health in obese older adults who are trying to lose weight, reports Phys.org . A pilot study had participants wear a weighted vest for 10 hours a day for six months, with an average 6.5 hours of daily wear time reported. The two-pound vest can be worn under clothes and allows full range of motion. As pilot participants lost weight, the researchers added the amount of weight lost — in two-ounce increments — to the vest. Bones grow when "load" is put on them as a person puts on a few extra pounds, or they will lose density when weight is lost. Older adults rarely regain bone density even if they regain weight. Pilot participants who wore the vest had a significant reduction in hip bone loss. The new four-year study will monitor 192 adults age 60 to 85, with the vest featuring weighted blocks that fit into little pockets. Participants will be split into those losing weight alone, those losing weight and wearing the vest, and those losing weight and undergoing resistance training.

AT&T is now offering Floridians 55 years and older a new Unlimited 55+ plan, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel . The service package features unlimited talk, text, and data in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, as well as unlimited texting and automatic fraud blocking and spam risk alerts. The offer also includes one line of service for $60 or a maximum of two lines for $80 a month. Customers also must enroll in auto pay and paperless billing. Only current and new customers can take advantage of the offer, which is only available in stores. AT&T continues to offers the Senior Nation Plan for $29.99 a month that requires customers to be 65 or older, but it only includes 200 minutes of talk and limited text with no data.

A study published in the American Economic Review said reduced air pollution levels between 1999 and 2013 saved the United States an estimated $24 billion annually on senior health benefits and reduced deaths among older adults, reports Gizmodo . The researchers analyzed county-level air quality data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with particulate matter and wind direction of particular interest. They paired this data with mortality rates and medical history of Medicare beneficiaries that live in those counties. Despite the savings and reduced death incidence, the study noted that 25 percent of Medicare recipients still lose years off their life because of short-term pollution increases. "One of the main ways in which we differ from previous studies . . . is that we rigorously estimate the counterfactual life expectancy of individuals who are killed by acute pollution exposure," said University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Professor Tatyana Deryugina. "This is extremely important for understanding the costs of air pollution — society is likely to be willing to expend more resources saving the life of someone who would have lived for 10 years otherwise."

A study in Environmental Health implies that people who live near major roads are at a higher risk of developing dementia, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and multiple sclerosis, reports ScienceDaily . The researchers reviewed data for 678,000 adults between the ages of 45 and 84 in Metro Vancouver. They found an association between living less than 50 meters from a major road or less than 150 meters from a highway, and a higher risk of developing these neurological diseases — likely because of greater concentrations of air pollution. Meanwhile, living near parks or other green spaces can shield against these disorders. "Our findings do suggest that urban planning efforts to increase accessibility to green spaces and to reduce motor vehicle traffic would be beneficial for neurological health," said the University of British Columbia's (UBC) Weiran Yuchi. UBC Professor Michael Brauer added that "for people who are exposed to a higher level of green space, they are more likely to be physically active and may also have more social interactions. There may even be benefits from just the visual aspects of vegetation."