Edie Weinstein, a 16-year-old Minnesota native, has written a children's book about dementia. Titled Grandpa and Lucy , it aims to help young people learn about the disease and connect with persons living with dementia like grandparents, older relatives, and neighbors, reports MPR News . She says she began writing the book after working with the volunteer advocacy group ACT on Alzheimer's. "What I learned primarily is that dementia can rob a person of their community and I'm a person that really believes in the power of community," Weinstein notes. "I started learning that I need to do something to fix that." Weinstein says many young people may feel uncomfortable around people with dementia due to the stigma associated with the disorder. It is her hope that the book will help spur greater understanding for those with dementia. "They are struggling with a disease as much as you are struggling with interacting with this disease," Weinstein says.

A study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) published in BMC Geriatrics gauged the effects of exercise on aging, reports Medical Xpress . More than 1,500 participants between 70 and 77 were randomly assigned to one of two exercise cohorts or a control group. Those in the exercise groups undertook moderate or high-intensity training sessions twice a week. "We read through a total of 70,000 exercise logs from the first year of the study," says NTNU's Line Skarsem Reitlo. "It turned out that the participants to a great degree managed to train at the prescribed intensity." The study found walking was the most popular form of activity in both the moderate and high-intensity training groups, representing more than half the training that people in the latter group undertook. Reitlo notes the high-intensity group had more training via cycling and jogging than the moderate group, and "achieving high intensity might have been easier with these types of activity for some participants." The team also examined the differences between participants who discontinued the program. Reitlo says "individuals who were physically active for fewer than 30 minutes a day were almost twice as likely to drop out ... within three years as those who were more physically active."

A study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety suggests older drivers on multiple medications may be elevating their risk of collisions, reports Reuters Health . Fifty percent of 2,949 seniors included in the study were taking seven or more medications, and 25 percent were taking 11 or more. Nearly 20 percent were taking potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs), according to the American Geriatrics Society. The group says PIMs should be avoided by seniors because they have very limited benefit, pose excess damage, or both. Most of these drugs, including benzodiazepines and certain antihistamines, have been shown to induce impairments like blurred vision, confusion, fatigue, or incoordination. Additional studies demonstrated that PIMs can increase the risk of a crash by up to 30 percent. "By working shoulder to shoulder with healthcare providers and pharmacists we can mitigate the risks by letting older drivers take the medications they need while allowing them to drive safely," says AAA's Jake Nelson. "The bad news is that individuals are not having the necessary conversations with their doctors and pharmacists."

A brief from the Center For Retirement Research found massive gaps in earnings and wealth between whites and minorities, with insights into their impact on retirement readiness. Two years ago, the percentage of whites at risk in retirement was 48 percent compared to 54 percent for blacks and 61 percent for Hispanics, smaller than the earnings/wealth disparities. The smaller size of the retirement gap is explained by the fact that minorities have a lower pre-retirement standard of living to maintain. Between 2007 and 2016, the retirement risk for all three groups rose, but the gap between whites and blacks narrowed while Hispanics lagged further behind. The underlying reasons include the drop in earnings among low-income blacks being cushioned by Social Security, while the housing bubble was more difficult for Hispanics to contend with than it was for either whites or blacks.

Jouarre, a nursing community outside Paris, is using a robot to help care for seniors, reports the New York Times . Since the "Zora" robot's arrival, many care recipients have developed an emotional attachment, treating it like a baby. A nurse controls Zora from a laptop, standing out of view so the subjects do not know who is guiding the robot. Zora can hold conversations as the nurse types words into the computer. The robot also can lead exercises and play games. The experience at Jouarre shows what life could be like as society depends more on robots to help care for loved ones as they age. Zora Bots, the Belgium-based provider of the robot at Jouarre, has sold more than 1,000 of the machines to healthcare communities around the world. Such technology may increasingly become a necessity in dealing with the challenge of dwindling numbers of healthcare professionals, especially as senior populations expand worldwide. This will likely entail creating machines capable of more sophisticated tasks than simply offering relief from loneliness.

A four-year Northumbria University study will explore the benefits that yoga brings to older adults with multiple long-term health conditions, reports News-Medical . The investigation follows evidence that such individuals are more likely to have reduced physical function, lower quality of life, reduced life expectancy, and more support for mental health issues. Northumbria Professor Garry Tew will work with the University of York and independent yoga consultants, enlisting nearly 600 people 65 and older who have multimorbidity from 12 different locations in the United Kingdom. Participants will be randomly assigned to either a cohort that will maintain their usual care without any additional support, or a cohort that receives usual care plus an invitation to join a yoga program involving weekly group-based sessions and encouragement to perform specific exercises at home. Participants will undergo three-, six-, and 12-month assessments of their quality of life and mental health. "A primary focus will be the effect of the program on peoples' overall quality of life," Tew says. "We will also review any changes in their reported levels of depression and anxiety and if they are having fewer falls because of improvements in physical function."

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) may lower the number of low-income older diabetics skipping medications due to cost, reports HealthDay News . The researchers analyzed data from 1,302 seniors with diabetes or borderline diabetes who participated in the National Health Interview Survey from 2013 through 2016, who qualified to receive SNAP benefits, were prescribed medications, and incurred out-of-pocket medical costs in the previous year. Analysis determined 36.3 percent of study participants participated in SNAP and 12.9 percent reported cost-related medication non-adherence in the previous year. A moderate decline was observed in cost-related medication non-adherence among SNAP participants compared with eligible non-participants. Similar results were seen for subgroups that had prescription drug coverage and less than $500 in out-of-pocket medical costs in the previous year. However, older adults lacking prescription coverage or with higher medical costs did not experience similar reductions. "In addition to alleviating food insecurity, food assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program may have a spillover income benefit by helping older adults with diabetes better afford their medications, perhaps by reducing out-of-pocket food expenditures," the researchers concluded.

A study published in Neurology Clinical Practice found three brief cognitive tests used to determine the likelihood of dementia may often be inaccurate, reports EurekAlert . The study analyzed the Mini-Mental State Examination, which looks at orientation to time and place and the ability to remember words; the Memory Impairment Screen, which concentrates on the ability to recall words; and Animal Naming, which involves naming as many animals as possible in one minute. For the investigation, 824 participants, average age 82, received full dementia assessments including a physical exam, genetic testing for the APOE gene, psychological testing, and comprehensive memory and thinking tests. Participants were assigned to two groups based on the comprehensive dementia diagnosis, and 35 percent were found to have dementia while 65 percent did not. When the subjects took each of the three quick tests, 36 percent were wrongly classified by at least one test but just 2 percent were misclassified by all three. In one test, those with higher education were more likely to be misclassified as lacking dementia and those with lower education were more likely to be misclassified as having dementia. Older age was another factor for misclassification, while a lack of information on whether a relative or friend rated the participant's memory to be poor also elevated the risk of misclassification.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed revisions to expand insurers' authority for negotiating lower prices on certain prescription drugs, reports BioSpace . One proposal would reduce prices for Medicare Part D plans via negotiated discounts for "protected" therapeutic areas. This would permit sponsors to deploy broader use of prior authorization and step therapy for protected class drugs, including to ascertain use for protected class indications and exclude such drugs from a formulary if the medication represents only a new formulation of an existing single-source drug or biological product. Also authorized would be the exclusion of a protected class drug from a formulary if its price rose beyond a certain threshold over a specific look-back period. Drug classes specified by CMS include antidepressants, antipsychotics, anticonvulsants, immunosuppressants for treatment of transplant rejection, and antiretrovirals. Another proposal would reclassify negotiated price as the baseline payment to a pharmacy, which the agency noted is often increasingly higher than the final payment "unless it incorporates the large price concessions that result from these arrangements." Finally, the agency will provide a pathway that will enable Part D providers to update e-prescribing methods that will let physicians and prescribers know when lower-cost alternatives are available under the insurance program.

The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Thursday will mark up health-related bills, including the Building Our Largest Dementia Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act, reports Politico Pro . The measure offers more resources for state and local public health officials to increase early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer's, and support caregivers and people living with the disease. The panel also will mark up the Traumatic Brain Injury Program Reauthorization Act of 2018, as well as review the Improving Access to Maternity Care Act and the Emergency Medical Services for Children Program Reauthorization Act of 2018. Beforehand, the committee is today holding a hearing on lowering costs through innovation in the healthcare system. Among those testifying are HCA Healthcare Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Perlin and The Alliance CEO Cheryl DeMars.