The Senior Living at Watkins community in Minnesota offers assisted living in modern housing attached to an old mansion, where residents share space with students attending Winona State University, reports WTHR-TV . Winona Health Assisted Living Director Cheryl Krage originally suggested housing college students in eight vacant rooms above the common areas of the Watkins mansion under the "Students in Residence" program. Krage encouraged the new student residents to share their talents and insights with their senior neighbors. Excellent results from the first six students have encouraged the community to host 10 students next year. Krage said the intergenerational living situation works regardless of age "because I think we are all connected."

A Glassdoor study found baby boomers are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. labor force, reports Staffing Industry Analysts . That segment is expected to expand 61 percent over the next 10 years, while the total U.S. workforce is forecast to grow 5.5 percent. "They are healthier, work in physically less-demanding jobs, and are more in need of retirement income than previous generations — all forces which are keeping seniors in the workforce longer," Glassdoor said. Glassdoor Chief Economist Andrew Chamberlain added in a blog post that this explosion "is also likely to surface new challenges — most importantly, rising ageism in the workplace — that employers will be under increasing pressure to combat." Glassdoor suggested older workers can bring a large set of skills and experience to jobs, and studies indicate that older employees are just as amenable to learning and development as their younger counterparts.

A study published in JAMA Network Open found a strong association between the number of fracture-associated drugs (FADs) older adults are prescribed and their fracture risk, reports ScienceDaily . "With older adults consuming, on average, five medications simultaneously, we suspected that a good number of seniors are likely to use more than one of these fracture-associated drugs at a time," said Dartmouth College's Rebecca Emeny. The researchers examined the prescription records of 2.5 million Medicare beneficiaries, and learned that FADs were commonly used and commonly combined among older U.S. residents. Unsurprisingly, the more fracture-associated drugs people took, the higher their fracture risk — but the size of the additional risk was greater than anticipated. Taking any one of the FADs doubled a person's risk, taking any two nearly tripled it, and taking three or more quadrupled risk, on average. The most commonly prescribed FADs were opioids, followed by diuretics and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). Opioids and sedatives, opioids and diuretics, and opioids and PPIs were the most dangerous FAD combinations. "The results . . . suggest caution when combining FADs, especially when use is discretionary, alternatives exist, or baseline fracture risk is high," said Dartmouth's Nancy Morden.

San Francisco is one of the top destinations for senior travelers, reports ABC7 News . The InsureMyTrip travel insurance company scored cities around the globe as to which ones are best for seniors to travel to based on such variables as ease of walking, access to quality healthcare, and senior tour availability. San Francisco came in fifth place and was the only U.S. city to make the top 10. The top four destinations were Edinburgh, Vienna, Brisbane, and Vancouver. Geneva, Zurich, Prague, Hamburg, and Rome rounded out the top 10 after San Francisco.

A Harris Poll survey for TD Ameritrade found one in three Americans who are at least 40 years old have or plan to have a job in retirement to prepare for a longer life, reports USA Today . Moreover, over 50 percent of "unretirees" — those who plan to work in retirement or returned to work after retiring — said they would be employed in their later years, even if they had enough money to settle down. Financial needs are not the only factor, with the survey citing additional motivators like personal fulfillment such as staying mentally fit, preventing boredom, or avoiding depression. One reason for the change in retirement patterns is the increasing lifespans of Americans. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the share of the 65 and older population was 16 percent in 2018, up 3.2 percent from 2017 and 30.2 percent from 2010. Older Americans also are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. workforce, and baby boomers are expected to live longer than previous generations. United Income reported about 20 percent of people 65 and older were in the workforce in February, from an all-time high of 10 percent in January 1985. Americans also are increasing their savings to preserve their nest eggs amid rising longevity, often by cutting overall expenses, getting life insurance, or maximizing their contributions to retirement accounts.

A study in Neurology suggests the act of writing may help protect people from dementia, reports Scientific American . The researchers enlisted 983 people with four years or less of schooling who were part of the Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Community Aging Project in New York City. Of that group, 238 were illiterate, average age about 78, with many hailing from rural areas in the Dominican Republic. Thirty-five percent of the illiterate group had dementia at the beginning of the study, as did 18 percent of the literate segment. Of the 155 illiterate people who lacked dementia when first examined, 48 percent received a diagnosis upon follow-up, while 27 percent of the 609 literate individuals were no longer dementia-free. The researchers correlated literacy with higher scores on cognitive measures not solely linked to reading or language skills. Moreover, the rate of cognitive decline did not differ between literate and illiterate cohorts, possibly because the illiterate group, when first examined, was already closer to meeting dementia thresholds. Dementia risk posed by illiteracy also was identical for men and women.

There are many entrepreneurial opportunities available for using artificial intelligence (AI) to provide new services for the growing senior population, reports Entrepreneur . With the global number of connected wearable devices projected to top 1.1 billion by 2022, forward-thinking companies are concentrating on making wearables more passive, unobtrusive, and age-appropriate. Entrepreneurs are being urged to research and survey aging populations to learn their anxieties and discomfort with monitoring devices in order to maximize wearables' user-friendliness. Other areas of investment include leveraging AI and deep learning to enhance diagnostic solutions. Also worth consideration by enterprising business leaders is AI-enabled memory improvement, with examples like cognitive testing software that boosts brain health via early detection of indicators of dementia and Alzheimer's.

If the U.S. Supreme Court decides to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, thousands of healthcare workers could be deported for being undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, reports the Washington Post . The Center for American Progress said about 27,000 DACA enrollees or "dreamers" are employed as healthcare providers and support professionals, and another 200 are in medical school or in residencies. Solicitor General Noel Francisco recently told the Supreme Court that the Trump administration supports DACA's termination regardless of its legality, "arguing that the program is flawed and could not be defended against challenges from states that want to end it." Meanwhile, healthcare jobs, especially those involving senior care, are forecast to expand exponentially as baby boomers age. "Our healthcare workforce, including physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and home health aides, is bolstered by providers with DACA status," wrote American Medical Association President Patrice Harris. "During their careers, these providers will care for and improve the lives of millions of Americans."

The Youth Movement Against Alzheimer's (YMAA) is a grassroots student campaign that recently marched on the nation's capital to urge Democratic presidential hopefuls to prioritize Alzheimer's above all other U.S. health issues, reports Forbes . The YMAA petition demanded that candidates as well as Congress invest in better care by boosting support and resources for family caregivers, hike federal funding for Alzheimer's research, and tap volunteers to combat ageism and promote healthy aging. Other demands include easing caregivers' burden by advancing economic and workforce policies that relieve economic hardship, and promoting early and accurate Alzheimer's diagnosis by encouraging early evaluation, proactive brain health across the lifespan, and better access to diagnostic tools among health providers. "We wanted to urge presidential candidates to speak more on Alzheimer's disease during the debates," said YMAA founder Nihal Satyadev. The group's online petition collected some 1,200 signatures to U.S. Senate presidential candidates. Satyadev warned Alzheimer's will eventually bankrupt the U.S. healthcare system unless changes are made.

A study in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society found statistically significant connections between self-reported regular use of prescription drugs for pain and/or sleep and longitudinal risk of frailty in adults 65 and older, reports News-Medical . These findings are especially serious, since older Americans often use two or more prescription drugs at the same time, and many of these medications are for pain and sleep. The researchers determined those who self-reported regular use of prescription drugs for pain and sleep had a 95 percent increased risk of frailty over eight years of follow-up, versus those who did not report regular use of these drugs. The respective elevated risks were 58 percent and 35 percent for regular prescription drug use for pain only or for sleep only. "Co-use of multiple prescription medications is a growing phenomenon, especially among older adults," noted Florida Atlantic University Professor Juyoung Park. "Geriatric medicine societies, including the American Geriatric Society, have developed guidelines to help prescribers avoid potentially inappropriate prescribing PIP . . . which requires assessment of several types of PIP, including the benefits and risks associated with certain drug classes."