Walt Disney World donated 200 Easter lilies to area seniors over the weekend, according to NBC 25 . Cast member Michelle Giger Rohrmann manages the nursery where the lilies are grown. She realized that because the theme park will remain closed for the foreseeable future due the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, she could spread some springtime joy in the community with the flowers. The lilies were gifted to the Osceola Council on Aging and added to Meals on Wheels deliveries near Walt Disney World. Rohrmann remarks, "To me, the lily is really symbolic of springtime — after a long, hard winter, the first thing to pop up is a lily. It's a good representation of how we'll come out of this together."

A study from McGill University in Alzheimer's and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association found that the presence and severity of mild behavioral impairment (MBI) in cognitively healthy individuals is strongly associated with amyloid plaques in the brain, reports Technology Networks . The researchers imaged the brains of nearly 100 cognitively healthy older individuals with varying MBI levels. MBI could potentially serve as a proxy for clinicians to diagnose Alzheimer's prior to the onset of symptoms using the Mild Behavioral Impairment Checklist, a tool for codifying mental disorder symptoms attributable to diseases of the nervous system in pre-dementia populations. "This is an important study because it may help identify people who are at a higher risk of progression of Alzheimer's disease by employing a user-friendly clinical scale . . . already available worldwide," said McGill's Serge Gauthier.

A study in the Journal of Aging & Social Policy urges measures to protect older adults in long-term care communities along with their caregivers who are particularly vulnerable to the COVID-19 outbreak, reports EurekAlert . The authors recommend that such centers should be priority sites for coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment. In addition, centers should develop policies to guarantee adequate staffing and close adherence to infection control protocols. The authors also call on long-term care communities to prioritize supervision during the pandemic to protect residents and staff as much as possible. "The most important thing that we can all do to help protect these vulnerable groups is to minimize disease transmission by following guidance from public health officials on handwashing and social distancing," declared University of Ottawa Professor William Gardner.

U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden on Thursday proposed lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60, reports CNBC . The plan would be in addition to Biden's existing healthcare agenda, which urged a Medicare-like public option. Reducing the age at which people can buy into Medicare is popular among both Democrats and Republicans. A Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll from January 2019 found almost 90 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of Republicans favor allowing those as young as 50 to buy into Medicare. Biden added that his proposal to lower eligibility age would work to the advantage of older Americans after immediate economic troubles from the COVID-19 pandemic end. "It reflects the reality that, even after the current crisis ends, older Americans are likely to find it difficult to secure jobs," he wrote. Biden also said the plan would be financed "out of general revenues to protect the Medicare Trust Fund."

New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that older adults and those with underlying health issues have been profoundly impacted by the novel coronavirus, reports U.S. News & World Report . Analysis of 1,482 coronavirus hospitalizations in 14 states found the overall hospitalization rate for those with COVID-19 was 4.6 per 100,000 people over four weeks in March — a rate that increased with age. The hospitalization rate was 2.5 among people 18 to 49 versus 7.4 among those 50 to 64 and 13.8 among those 65 and older. About 75 percent of people hospitalized with the pathogen were 50 or older, while about 90 percent of some 180 hospitalized adults had one or more underlying health issues. The most common ailments included high blood pressure, obesity, chronic lung disease, and diabetes and heart disease. The CDC data also indicates that about 54 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations were among men, and that African Americans are bearing a particularly severe burden from the pandemic. "Given the rapidly evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, rates are expected to increase as additional cases are identified and as coronavirus testing capacity in the United States increases," the researchers concluded.

The New York Times reports that Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, recently finished gathering data for a study on American workers ages 50 to 62 in jobs without benefits. The study surprisingly found that three-quarters of American workers in that age group had positions that fall into the center's "non-traditional" category — meaning, those without employer-provided retirement plans and health insurance. Freelancers and consultants of all stripes can fit that definition. So can waiters, artists, yoga instructors, and anyone who works part time or whose income is generated by the gig economy. What may be less surprising is the effect these jobs can have on retirement. Depending on how much time workers spent in a job without benefits from ages 50 to 62, they can expect their retirement income to be as much as 26 percent lower than that of people who spent their 50s and early 60s in positions with full benefit packages, according to the center's findings. Munnell concludes, "The results mean that people have to worry about getting protections on their own, and that they have very unpredictable work lives."

Many Walmart stores will soon install hearing loss information centers from InnerScope Hearing Technologies in Pursuant Health's self-service wellness screening kiosks at pharmacy counters, reports Retail Info Systems . The centers are scheduled for launch in June at more than 4,600 Walmart and Walmart Neighborhood Market outlets. The centers will encourage consumers to treat their hearing loss by either being referred locally to a contracted hearing healthcare professional, or by directly buying an InnerScope hearing product. InnerScope also will sell its products on Walmart.com as a wholesale direct-ship vendor.

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that walking speed could indicate the speed of aging, reports Medical Xpress . "Slower walkers were shown to have 'accelerated aging' on a 19-measure scale devised by researchers, and their lungs, teeth and immune systems tended to be in worse shape than the people who walked faster," said Duke University researchers. The investigators said the tests the participants took at age 3 — including intelligence quotient, understanding language, frustration tolerance, motor skills, and emotional control — could forecast who would be a slow walker at age 45. Magnetic resonance imaging scans showed that the brains of slow walkers had less cortical thickness and surface area, while screeners displayed photos of the 45-year-olds felt the slow walkers appeared older.

A study in the Journal of Affective Disorders associated sedentary behavior with depression among people aged 70 years, with longer daily periods of inactivity correlating with higher depression risk, reports Neurology Advisor . The researchers studied 3,633 Swedish participants who wore an accelerometer at home for a week after their initial visits to measure sedentary behavior and physical activity. The risk for depression was greater among individuals with a longer total sedentary time, with each 1 percent boost in sedentary time linked to a 3 percent increase in risk for depression. Risk also was greater among participants with longer average length of sedentary bouts, in which each 60-second average increase in the bout length was associated with a 12 percent higher risk for depression. The researchers concluded that sedentary behavior "is a potential risk factor for depression among older adults," and added that physicians treating depressed seniors should consider this association in developing future recommendations.

Author Trish Laub recommends in Being Patient that people should be cautious in their choice of words when dealing with older adults suffering from Alzheimer's, as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic, to avoid negative connotations. "We need to start by being accurate in what we say," she says. "For example, the statement that 'Alzheimer's is a fight,' implies that it is a persistent, life-altering inconvenience and elicits a feeling of defeat. The alternative, 'Alzheimer's is a challenge,' indicates that it is an obstacle that can be overcome and result in a feeling of accomplishment." Similarly, Laub suggests that when discussing sheltering-in-place and quarantine orders in the midst of the pandemic, "consider the difference between saying, 'We are stuck,' compared with, 'We are staying safe.'"