A poll from Home Instead Senior Care in Colorado Springs found pets can help ameliorate isolation and loneliness among adults 65 and older, reports Fox21News . Forty-three percent of senior respondents said loneliness is a regular burden for them. "We have found that reducing the anxiety and depression and even blood pressure . . . gets them mobile, it gets them active, which ultimately enhances their lives," noted Home Instead Senior Care owner Jerri Schomaker. The community said seniors with pets may experience a lessening of blood pressure and anxiety, as well as higher endorphin levels as they anticipate interaction. "If they cannot own their own pets, they can still reap the benefits," Schomaker commented. "They can go to a local shelter and volunteer; visit a pet store; go to the dog park; or even have friends, family, and neighbors and interact with their pets."

A jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2740062 study in JAMA Network Open found abnormal liver enzyme levels measured by common blood tests may be associated with Alzheimer's diagnosis and multiple disease biomarkers, reports the U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA) . The study involved 1,581 participants of the NIA-supported Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. The results for 407 healthy controls, 862 with memory issues or mild cognitive impairment, and 312 people diagnosed with Alzheimer's were examined. Abnormal levels of liver enzymes were linked to diagnosis of Alzheimer's and corresponded with poor memory and thinking scores in afflicted individuals. Abnormal levels also tied into higher concentrations of amyloid in the brain spotted by positron emission tomography imaging, and lower amyloid and elevated levels of tau in cerebrospinal fluid. Moreover, abnormal liver enzyme levels were connected to lower glucose metabolism and greater contraction in brain regions involved in memory and thinking.

Certain residential and adult day programs in the United States are exploring reminiscence therapy — in which photos, music, memorabilia, and other materials are used to create immersive environments — to help people with dementia evoke long-term memories, reports U.S. News & World Report . Glenner Town Square in Chula Vista, Calif., is an interactive senior day care center, where professional caregivers guide participants through a series of storefronts and activities to recall old memories. Experts like the Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center's Daniel Bateman see potential in reminiscence therapy, when combined with specially designed environments. The therapy can occur anytime and anywhere, using objects from past eras to trigger moments of clarity. "Reminiscence can be a good fit for people with dementia as it provides an opportunity to concentrate on those memories that are more intact and focus on what that person can remember, rather than memory that is impaired," notes Laura O'Philbin at the Alzheimer Society of Ireland.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration has granted University of Rhode Island (URI) Professor Phillip Clark $3.75 million to improve health services for seniors, reports the Westerly Sun . URI's Rhode Island Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program will support a five-year initiative to better train healthcare providers and combine primary and geriatric care. "The idea is to transform the care system for older adults and improve quality and outcomes," Clark said. The effort will bring together professionals in live presentations, webinars, and real-time case discussions, with one program involving videoconferencing to train primary care doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and other clinicians on geriatrics. The program is scheduled to begin in early 2020, and Clark is recruiting healthcare groups to direct and participate in sessions, concentrating on teamwork. The aim is to train more than 5,000 current and future clinicians during the project. Among the topics that presentations will cover are fall prevention, multiple medication prescribing, and dementia care, while continuing education credits will be available for select healthcare professionals. "We'll evaluate the result of the educational programs on changing provider clinical behavior," Clark added.

A study published in the Journal of Aging and Health found driving is essential to seniors who want to remain independent, and its loss enforces feelings of isolation, reports News-Medical . The researchers focused on nearly 7,000 people 65 and older who were eligible to drive. Roughly 20 percent stopped driving over five years, while almost 60 percent continued to drive, with another 20 percent nondrivers at the time of the study. Twenty percent of subjects were categorized as not socially isolated, 58 percent were somewhat isolated, and 21 percent were socially isolated. Case Western Reserve University's Weidi Qin said those feeling isolation tended to be male, with lower educational levels and income. Nondrivers were twice as likely as active drivers of having greater social isolation, while increasing age more strongly correlated with socially isolation compared with younger participants. In general, social isolation scores rose when seniors stopped driving, and lingered during the six-year assessment.

A study published in Sleep found a connection between sleep apnea and accelerated aging, reports BedTimes . A total of 662 participants were monitored for breathing patterns, oxygen levels in the blood, heart rate, arm and leg movements, brain waves, and DNA methylation. "People's biological age might not be the same as their chronological age," noted Harvard Medical School's Xiaoyu Li. "Individuals whose biological age is higher than their chronological age exhibit age acceleration or fast aging. In our study, we found that more severe sleep-disordered breathing is associated with epigenetic age acceleration. Our data provide biological evidence supporting adverse physiological and health effects of untreated sleep-disordered breathing."

Demand is spurring Illinois to establish 40 additional dementia care sites combining converted apartments and new construction for low-income residents, reports Crain's Chicago Business . These sites will provide services like housekeeping and drug management to help Medicaid beneficiaries with dementia, according to the Illinois Department of Healthcare & Family Services (HFS). Additional services include meals, laundry, help with daily living, and regular nursing evaluations. About 1,600 beneficiaries will be offered housing at the new sites, which will be ready starting next year as part of HFS' Supportive Living Program. The program is underwritten by a federal waiver allowing the state to provide services that Medicaid does not usually cover. The goal of the effort is to encourage independence and community engagement, as well as privacy and dignity. "With these settings, those facing a truly difficult challenge can get the right kind of care and protection to help them lead safe and healthy lives," said HFS Director Theresa Eagleson. "These settings also help to bring vital peace of mind to their loved ones."

The U.K. dementia research charity Alzheimer's Research UK is recruiting participants for a new online survey that could help influence future dementia treatments, reports BioSpace . The Shaping Future Treatments survey queries participants for their views on aspects of daily life that they value most highly, and which they would most like to preserve if they were to develop a disease that induces dementia. "Any new treatment would need to be deemed effective enough before it could become available," said survey developer Graeme Armstrong, whose wife suffers from Alzheimer's. "It's hugely important that decision-makers know what matters to people like us, so I'd urge everyone to take part in this survey." The poll's results will be used to help inform regulators and healthcare decision-makers in their evaluation of new treatments, and also shared with scientists who are working to develop future treatment strategies. "We're asking everyone to take part in our survey, whether they have experience of dementia or not, to make sure we capture as many opinions as possible," said Alzheimer's Research UK Chief Executive Hilary Evans. "We'll build on the results with further research, to understand what side effects people would accept in a treatment that could provide the benefits that they deem most important."

A new survey from telehealth provider American Well found few consumers have used telehealth services despite a high number of people willing to do so, reports Healthcare Dive . Millennials are more likely than older Americans to employ virtual healthcare services, with mobile apps being particularly useful in this regard. Adults 65 and older are less likely to change from traditional providers to ones offering telehealth, and they favor trips to the emergency room for urgent care. Still, 25 percent are currently using a mobile health app, and 84 percent said they would have a video visit to renew medication prescriptions. Older adults could be an especially profitable segment for telehealth vendors, with the market expected to total $16.8 billion by next year. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized a rule granting privately-run Medicare Advantage plans more flexibility in offering virtual care benefits at less cost, beginning in the 2020 plan year. This has prompted new services, including American Well's partnership with Cisco on in-home telehealth options for seniors, such as transitioning TV sets to care delivery portals.

Longevity Explorers is a test group of older adults who have been helping product designers design for older people since 2014, reports InsideHook . Stanford Center on Longevity Director Ken Smith says designers often mistakenly assume that design is of less importance to consumers after age 60, while other erroneous assumptions include the idea that seniors are tech-averse. Longevity Explorers founder Richard Caro started the effort to address the fact that many products for older people were "ugly and stigmatizing." Caro explains that "there's this huge demographic of people who have sort of been put aside and told to go off and play bridge and bingo and not contribute to society." Members meet to brainstorm about aging, focusing on problems technologists should address, and providing a resource for product developers to understand target audiences. The eight existing Longevity Explorer "circles" include five in Northern California, and one each in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, with some 500 members overall.