“White Americans’ Mortality Rates Are Rising. Something Similar Happened in Russia from 1965 to 2005,” by David A. Squires and David Blumenthal, Harvard Business Review “The similarities between the mortality rate increases in Russia and the United States are striking and troubling. First, there are similarities between the affected populations. As in the United States, the Russian phenomenon occurred exclusively among working-age adults, not children or the elderly. In addition, the excess deaths in Russia appear concentrated among the less educated, and spared those with university degrees. The same is true today of the mortality crisis among U.S. whites. Second, there
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“Dementia patients may die sooner if family caregivers are mentally stressed,” by Yasmin Anwar, Berkeley News “From 2007 until 2016, UC Berkeley researchers tracked the mortality of 176 patients with neurodegenerative diseases that are corrosive to brain function. They also measured the mental health of the family members who took care of them. Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, indicate that patients tended by caregivers with depression, anxiety and other symptoms of mental illness typically died sooner than those being looked after by caregivers in good mental health. For example, compared to patients who
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“New Study: Immigrants are the Future of Long-Term Care,” by Robert Espinosa, HuffPost “Immigrants are a key part of the U.S. economy and the future of long-term care, says a new study on immigrants in the direct care workforce from PHI, the nation’s leading expert on direct care. According to the study released this week, more than 1 million immigrants work in direct care, a rapidly-growing sector that includes about 4.4 million home care workers and nursing assistants employed in nursing homes. Immigrants in this workforce come from 151 countries representing many regions of the world, though more than half
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“Census: U.S. is aging, growing more racially diverse,” by Matt Rourke, CBS News “The Census Bureau reported that the median age of Americans — the age at which half are older and half are younger — rose nationally from just over 35 years to nearly 38 years in the years between 2000 and 2016, driven by the aging of the “baby boom” generation. The number of residents age 65 and older grew from 35 million to 49.2 million during those 16 years, jumping from 12 percent of the total population to 15 percent. That’s a costly leap for taxpayers as
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“Places in Need: The Changing Geography of Poverty,” by Scott W. Allard, Russell Sage Foundation “Americans think of suburbs as prosperous areas that are relatively free from poverty and unemployment. Yet, today more poor people live in the suburbs than in cities themselves. In Places in Need, social policy expert Scott W. Allard tracks how the number of poor people living in suburbs has more than doubled over the last 25 years, with little attention from either academics or policymakers. Rising suburban poverty has not coincided with a decrease in urban poverty, meaning that solutions for reducing poverty must work
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“Medicaid’s Role in Nursing Home Care,” Kaiser Family Foundation “Nursing homes are key providers of long-term care in the US, supplying medical, skilled nursing, and rehabilitative services on an inpatient basis to individuals who need help with self-care, such as bathing and dressing. As of 2015, there were 1.4 million people, primarily seniors, served in nearly 16,000 nursing homes. Medicaid is the primary payer for nursing home care, providing needed long-term care services not offered by Medicare that would otherwise be unaffordable for seniors with low incomes and relieving the care burden from families. Medicaid currently provides federal matching funds
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“Interventions can help reverse physical frailty, study finds,” by Alyssa Salela, McKnight’s Senior Living “Diet, exercise and stimulating activities are keys to reversing physical frailty, a recent study has found. . . . Older adults who are physically frail are two to 10 times more likely to become functionally disabled, hospitalized or die earlier, they said. If they are cognitively impaired in addition to being physically frail, then they are 20 times more likely to become functionally disabled, hospitalized or die earlier.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Stemming the obesity epidemic is step
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