The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has released a new Issue in Brief titled "Do People with Dementia Get Help Managing Their Money?" Written by Anek Belbase, Geoffrey T. Sanzenbacher, and Abigail Walters, one the brief's key findings is that dementia severely erodes people's capacity to manage their finances. But the analysis finds that most with dementia get assistance — typically from their spouses and/or adult children — with such everyday activities as writing checks and making bank deposits. Those who receive help are much less likely to experience severe financial hardship.

Professor Candice Brown at West Virginia University's (WVU's) School of Medicine and Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute is investigating the relationship between sepsis and dementia in order to help prevent or mitigate the neurological effects of sepsis, reports Newswise . "There are two key issues: sepsis can increase the age of onset and severity of dementia, but does dementia increase the onset of sepsis?" Brown asks. "Are people becoming septic because their brain function is impaired and, therefore, other systems aren't working properly, or does sepsis cause cognitive impairment? It's like a chicken and egg scenario." Brown is worried that as baby boomers age, sepsis and dementia will intersect more often because the risk for both disorders rises with age. The impact could be especially profound in West Virginia, which has the third-highest concentration of seniors in the United States. "Most people normally would develop some type of dementia by their 80s or 90s, but the onset of sepsis in their 50s and 60s could accelerate the process so that dementia develops in their 60s and 70s instead," Brown warns.

International consensus recommendations published in EP Europace say people with atrial fibrillation could lower their risk of dementia by taking stroke prevention medications, reports News-Medical . It was determined that arrhythmias and certain procedures can heighten the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. According to the recommendation document, this elevated risk may be attributable to atrial fibrillation's association with a more than two-fold risk of silent strokes, the accrual of which may contribute to cognitive impairment. The document's authors think oral anticoagulation may reduce the risk of dementia. "People with atrial fibrillation may be able to reduce their risk of cognitive impairment and dementia by taking their oral anticoagulation medication and having a healthy lifestyle," says Dr. Nikolaos Dagres with the Heart Center Leipzig in Germany. Meanwhile, treating atrial fibrillation with catheter ablation also can cause silent strokes and cognitive impairment, and physicians should adhere to recommendations for performing ablation and for the management of people before and after the procedure to lower this risk. The document further notes that doctors may suspect cognitive impairment if a person's appearance or behavior changes, and relatives should be queried for collateral information.

A study published in Medical Care found approximately 5 percent of older adults on Medicare lack a "personal physician" and score lower on measures of healthcare quality, reports EurekAlert . "Beneficiaries without a personal physician report worse care experiences, rating their overall quality of care substantially lower than those with a personal physician," say the researchers, who think that encouraging Medicare recipients to have a regular physician could improve continuity and quality of healthcare. The team analyzed data from more than 272,000 surveyed senior Medicare beneficiaries. Overall, 4.9 percent said they did not have a personal physician, which constitutes more than 2 million people. That rate was elevated for certain groups, including men, racial/ethnic minorities, and those with less education. Recipients lacking a personal doctor were more likely to be enrolled in fee-for-service Medicare without a prescription drug plan, and less likely to be enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. Older adults without a regular doctor had poorer mental health, as well. "Our findings provide further evidence of the relatively poorer care experiences among those who do not have a personal physician," the researchers concluded. "Medicare would be well-served to better understand who does and does not have a personal physician and take actions to help connect beneficiaries to providers."

Commonwealth Senior Living CEO Richard Brewer has for more than 10 years been conducting "gas up" events for employees at assisted living communities as a gesture of appreciation for their service, reports the Virginian-Pilot . In February, Brewer filled up the tanks of 50 employees from Churchland House in Portsmouth at the Murphy Oil gas station in Suffolk. The event was intended to acknowledge their success in reaching a milestone of securing a two-year license from the Virginia Department of Social Services. A Commonwealth spokesperson says only a small number of assisted living communities in Virginia receive two-year licenses, which are awarded to those that show solid performance in caring for seniors and sound management practices. Brewer notes he started the "gas up" initiative when fuel prices were high. "Gas spiked from about a dollar a gallon to $4," he recalls. "Everyone needs a tank of gas. People love it. I get to do something for them. They are working hard for us every day." Brewer notes conversing with workers while pumping gas has helped obtain feedback about the organization. Brewer calls it "servant leadership."

The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced a major sweep of senior fraud cases, involving 250 defendants around the world who targeted more than 1 million Americans, mainly seniors, to the cost of more than $500 million, reports USA Today . The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2017 retrieved about $300 million on behalf of victims, and federal prosecutors and state attorneys general are bringing criminal cases following the DOJ sweep. "Technology has given scammers the ability to reach more people at a lower cost," says the AARP Foundation's Amy Nofziger. "You can reach millions of people with one hit of button." Fraud involving fake tech support assistance, online dating, and tax refunds are becoming more common. Federal officials say millennials are much more likely to be scammed than seniors, but are less likely to lose as much. The FTC estimates consumers in their 70s lost an average of $621, while those 80 and older lost nearly $1,100. Millennials only lost $400, on average.

Older people are ignoring experts' warnings and choosing to use more anti-anxiety and sleep medications, elevating their risk of serious side effects and overdoses, reports the New York Times . "Way too many older Americans are getting benzodiazepines," says Michael Schoenbaum with the National Institutes for Health. "And of those, many — more than half — are getting them for prolonged periods. That's just bad practice. They have serious consequences." Schoenbaum co-authored a study published in JAMA Psychiatry estimating that nearly 9 percent of adults aged 65 to 80 took benzos in 2008. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted only 63 benzo-related deaths among those 65 and older in 1999, and nearly 29 percent also involved an opioid. By 2015, benzo deaths in that age group had risen to 431, with more than 66 percent involving an opioid. In the following year, the Food and Drug Administration published a black-box warning about co-prescribing benzodiazepines and opioids, including those in cough products. Persons taking these drugs precisely as prescribed can unwittingly be at risk, as both sleep problems and chronic pain happen more frequently at older ages. Among benzos' most serious side effects are falls and fractures, because the drugs can induce dizziness, along with drowsiness and fatigue. In addition, benzos "have a negative effect on memory and other cognitive function," says Dr. Donovan Maust at the Veterans Administration Ann Arbor Health Care System.

A study conducted by Japan's National Center for Global Health and Medicine and published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research found an association between tobacco and higher risk of hearing loss, reports Inquirer.net . The researchers examined 50,195 participants aged 20 to 64 years over eight years. The outcomes showed that, even after accounting for factors such as noise exposure at work, current smokers had a 1.2 increased risk of developing low-frequency hearing loss, and a 1.6 increased risk of high-frequency hearing loss, in comparison with non-smokers. In addition, the risk of developing both high- and low-frequency hearing loss rose with the number of cigarettes smoked each day. Former smokers had a 1.2 higher risk of high-frequency hearing loss, although the risk of hearing loss appeared to decline within five years after quitting smoking. "With a large sample size, long follow-up period, and objective assessment of hearing loss, our study provides strong evidence that smoking is an independent risk factor of hearing loss," says the Center's Dr. Huanhuan Hu. "These results provide strong evidence to support that smoking is a causal factor for hearing loss and emphasize the need for tobacco control to prevent or delay the development of hearing loss."

A study from researchers at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease (DZNE) published in Current Biology may explain why seniors sometimes have problems with spatial orientation, reports ScienceDaily . The team conducted experiments with 41 healthy individuals who were split into a cohort of 20 "young adults" and 21 "older adults" between 63 and 81 years old. One test combined functional brain imaging and virtual reality where participants had to navigate through a computer-generated scenery while their brain activity was monitored. A second experiment tested the ability for "path integration" and had participants move along predefined curved paths. At intermediate stops they were required to estimate their distance and orientation relative to their starting point, without being able to see or pinpoint its location. "We found an association between decreased navigational performance and deficits in grid cell activity," says DZNE Professor Thomas Wolbers. "Grid cells fired differently when comparing young and old adults. Specifically, firing patterns were less stable over time in older individuals, which indicates that these brain circuits are compromised in old age." Declining navigational capability is seen as an early symptoms of Alzheimer's.