“‘No One Wants To Be Old’: How To Put The ‘Non-Age’ in Nonagenerian,” by Sharon Jayson, Kaiser Health News “It never hurts to have longevity in your genes and few chronic health problems, but mindset plays a role in how people age, experts say. Some older adults have been termed “superagers” for mental acuity despite their years because the typical age-related decline in brain volume is much slower. . . . Researchers find that society’s focus on youth culture and negative stereotypes about aging prompts older adults’ memory loss and stress. These days, older adults who want to dispel notions
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“Helping elderly gain financial security,” by Zhang Yue, China Daily “In old age, most people need something to rely on. For the Chinese, that’s generally been family and a State pension. Yet the central government has shown it wants the commercial endowment insurance sector to help more with ensuring the nation’s seniors are financially secure in their twilight years. The State Council unveiled an array of incentives and guidelines aimed at boosting the sector at an executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday. . . . The government will encourage innovation in private insurance services to create
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“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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