A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found taking multiple medications can pose a number of health risks for older adults with heart issues, reports ConsumerAffairs . Investigators analyzed results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2003 through 2014. All respondents were 50 and older, considered frail, and had multiple chronic conditions that included anemia, arthritis, asthma, cancer, chronic kidney disease, coronary artery disease, dialysis, emphysema, high cholesterol, liver disease, prior heart attack, prior stroke, and thyroid disease. Close to 75 percent of all participants took at least five medications, and those who took more medication had a harder time completing day-to-day tasks. A quarter of the participants dealt with some kind of cognitive issue as a direct result of their drug regimen. Frailty was more frequent and occurred more quickly for respondents who were taking either between five and nine prescriptions or more than 10 prescriptions. "This suggests that providers may not sufficiently consider functional impairment when prescribing medications to adults with heart failure and thus may unnecessarily expose individuals to risk of adverse outcomes," the researchers concluded.

Walmart announced it will invest more than $4 million in funding to the Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC) to support workforce development and help offer retail advancement to employees through training and upskilling, reports Chain Store Age . Through the grant, the CWDC will be able to partner with local workforce development boards across the state and launch 10 new retail sector alliances. Representatives from workforce boards, economic development, and education will collaborate with community retail employers to design upskilling and training initiatives for frontline workers, which could serve as a template for workforce development organizations across the United States. The grant is part of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation's five-year, $100 million Retail Opportunity Initiative, which has thus far funded more than $80 million in grants to boost the economic mobility of retail and related-sector workers. The CWDC and sector partnerships will seek to train incumbent workers via the grant, and share best practices for building retail career pathways and upskilling employees by developing a "how-to" guide to be distributed across Colorado.

A study published in Disability and Rehabilitation found older adults who undergo strength training may have a better chance of being able to get up independently after falling, reports Mirage News . Curtin University researchers reviewed 41 studies. They noted that combining education and resistance training, including upper and lower body exercises, may make older people more capable of getting up after a fall without assistance, barring injury. "Previous research suggests that a number of negative physical consequences can result from not being able to get up after a fall, including increased risk of hospitalisation, poor recovery of physical function, increased possibility of moving into residential aged care, and even death," said Curtin University's Elissa Burton. "Teaching the older population specific techniques on how to get up after a fall is critical and in turn could help reduce the negative physical and emotional effects that occur as a result of a fall."

Apple's Series 4 smartwatch has new features to detect falls and heart problems as the company forges ahead into the preventive health market, reports Kaiser Health News . KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Andy Hargreaves says the Series 4's fall prevention and electrocardiogram apps are a "play to sell people more stuff" and extend health-monitoring to baby boomers who want to keep themselves and their parents healthy. The fall-monitoring app employs sensors in the watchband, which are automatically enabled for people 65 and older after they enter their age. The sensors track and record user movements, noting if the user's gait becomes unsteady. The watch alerts the wearer if a fall is detected, and contacts emergency services if the wearer fails to respond to and deactivate the alert within 60 seconds. The ECG monitoring app also uses wristband sensors to track wearer heartbeat and send alerts if it becomes excessively fast or slow. The app is designed to identify atrial fibrillation.

A study of more than 1,200 older adults published in PLOS One found their activity levels to be higher during periods of warmer, dry weather, reports News-Medical.net . "Older people in poor physical condition become less physically active if there's more rain in the summer," says Nils Petter Aspvik at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. "Higher temperatures, on the other hand, have a positive effect on their activity level in both summer and winter months." The researchers split the participants into categories based on whether they scored low, medium, or high on a fitness test. From April to October, results indicated that the least fit participants were less active the wetter it was, whereas rain and rainfall amount did not seem to impact the level of activity of those in better physical condition. "Participants who are in good physical shape are likely to be people who are active in everyday life and who exercise relatively regularly," Aspvik notes. "It's easy to imagine that these individuals have acquired habits and attitudes in addition to their physical activity so that they don't regard bad weather as an obstacle." From November through March, men in good shape were actually more active the more it rained. "The study also shows that changes in weather are more important for activity levels in the warmer months than in the winter months from November to March," Aspvik says. "Walking is the most common activity among seniors, and we know from other studies that slippery surfaces and less daylight reduce activity levels."

A study by the Pew Research Center estimated that 29 percent of U.S. adults have a child younger than 18 at home, and 12 percent also care for an adult. Pew's analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data found these caregivers provide more than two and a half hours of unpaid daily care, on average. Multigenerational caregiver parents spend slightly more than an hour each day performing adult care in addition to child care. Such caregiving can include hands-on assistance with dressing, eating, or healthcare; transportation to appointments; or maintaining the homes or finances of those getting care. In addition to caring for both children and adults, multigenerational caregivers spend an average of three hours and 17 minutes daily on paid employment, which is 86 fewer minutes a day than parents who are not also caring for adults. Overall, the time engaged varies somewhat across different demographics, mostly due to differences in the amount of time caring for children. Stay-at-home parents, most of whom are mothers, spend about 90 minutes more each day providing unpaid care to both children and adults than their employed peers. It is, however, notable that employed multigenerational caregivers still spend more than two hours each day on unpaid care, in addition to their paid work.

A study published in Scientific Reports found interrupted sleep raises the risk of falling by decreasing the capability to control posture and balance, reports Medical Xpress . Study participants wore sensors for in-home sleep monitoring and balance testing over two consecutive days. "We all have direct experience of this," says the University of Warwick's Leandro Pecchia. "When we do not sleep well, we may feel a little dizzy and our capability to control our posture and balance is somehow diminished. When we are fit and in good health, our body is able to adapt and we develop a strategy to keep our balance, avoiding falls and incidents. This ability is reduced with aging or when there are other concomitant conditions that may compromise our ability to adapt." Pecchia expects more dramatic results with such experiments replicated in older adults, "whose vulnerability to sleep disruption, postural hypotension, and risk of falls is much greater." He concludes that the study outcomes could inform the understanding of in-hospital falls.

A new study presented at the American College of Rheumatology's annual meeting suggests brisk walks could help people who suffer from knee arthritis, reports HealthDay News . The researchers found older adults with arthritic knees who added five minutes of moderate-to-high intensity walking a day could make their odds of knee replacement surgery fall by 16 percent. The team analyzed data from more than 1,800 older adults with knee arthritis who wore portable devices that monitored their walking intensities for at least four days. They used the data on participants' walking habits to study the effects of substituting "non-walking" time with time spent walking at different intensities. Six percent of participants underwent total knee replacement surgery over the next five years. Although University of Minnesota's Paul Sufka notes the findings do not prove brisk walking directly reduces the risk of knee replacement surgery, he acknowledges it "gives us some useful information to bring to the discussion." Research generally suggests it is better for people with knee arthritis to be active.

The state of Minnesota in 2019 will add Alzheimer's to the list of diseases eligible for treatment with medical marijuana, in spite of little scientific evidence demonstrating cannabis' effectiveness, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune . Some studies have determined that marijuana inhibits production of tau proteins that speed up dementia and memory loss related to Alzheimer's. "There is some evidence for potential benefits of medical cannabis to improve the mood, sleep, and behavior of people with Alzheimer's disease," acknowledged Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm. Minnesota will be the thirteenth U.S. state permitting medical marijuana use either for Alzheimer's or related symptoms. Although the risks of long-term marijuana use are not known, Malcolm said they are less of a concern among the older Alzheimer's population. Sensible Minnesota's Heather Tidd expects cannabis will be of assistance to families living with senior parents or other loved ones with Alzheimer's, particularly in salving anxiety and aggression. Minnesota uses data from certified healthcare beneficiaries to evaluate whether the potential advantages of medical marijuana outweigh the known drawbacks.

A University of Southern California (USC) study published in the American Journal for Geriatric Psychiatry showed that older African Americans who received culturally tailored text messages about Alzheimer's had the highest increase in Alzheimer's literacy levels compared with other participants, reports USC News . The assessed intervention started with participants attending a 60-minute "talk show" in an African American community setting that delivered information about the disease, followed by a month-long regimen of daily text messages to promote Alzheimer's literacy (defined as knowledge about the disease and understanding of its causes, effects, symptoms, and treatment). One cohort received standard printed materials on Alzheimer's and attended the talk show, while a second received the same materials, attended the talk show, and also were given daily text messages to "nudge" people to engage in healthy brain behaviors. A third group received all of these materials in addition to text messages that addressed the same kind of information as the general messages while using colloquialisms, language, and style that is more resonant with older African Americans. All three cohorts exhibited quantifiable growth in Alzheimer's literacy from baseline, but the group that received the culturally tailored text messages had the greatest literacy increases.