People with hearing loss have a wealth of assistive options to choose from thanks to technical innovations, which also are compounding their difficulties, reports the Wall Street Journal . The advancements themselves will not eliminate tech-support issues, especially for people who are not technically inclined. Britta Swedenborg at Massachusetts Eye and Ear said people have to feel motivated to get a hearing aid. Moreover, a person's needs may not necessitate a hearing aid, particularly if hearing assistance is only required part of the time rather than constantly. Apple's AirPods Pro, for example, can amplify the quiet sounds without making loud sounds any louder, while apps also can work with existing devices to separate speech from noise. "If an individual owns a smartphone, and the majority of adults do, they have a non-custom hearing aid right in their hand," said Catherine Palmer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

A U.S. study by the New York Federal Reserve and AARP found the pandemic extracted a particularly heavy toll on older minority small business owners, reports Reuters . Small business owners 45 and older closed their operations at higher rates and have had a slower recovery. For instance, 25 percent of small businesses owned by people in that demographic shuttered at the height of the crisis last spring, versus 20 percent of small businesses overall. Small business ownership for people younger than 45 bounced back faster and was down 2 percent overall as of January, but was still down 9 percent for those 45 and older. Meanwhile, about 90 percent of small firms owned by Asians 45 and older saw revenue declines last year, as did 85 percent of older Black-owned business and 81 percent of older Hispanic-owned businesses; this compares to 77 percent of small firms owned by older whites and 78 percent of businesses overall in that age group. Fewer older small business owners in minorities also received full Paycheck Protection Program financing from the federal government compared to whites, while small businesses owned by minorities were more financially distressed heading into the pandemic. "People of color who own small businesses were more likely to borrow from personal networks or against their home or retirement accounts," noted the New York Fed's Kramer Mills.

The Ascent reports that U.S. lawmakers are calling on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to improve its efforts to get stimulus checks to Social Security recipients in a timely manner, following President Biden's signing of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill into law. The IRS can only issue a limited number of physical checks at a time, and while the first round had about 90 million payments sent out, only 150,000 were distributed as physical checks. Since many on Social Security are retired and do not have to file an income tax return, the IRS may not have bank account details on file for numerous seniors. In a Monday letter, congressional Democrats urged the agency to expedite payments, arguing that seniors are financially vulnerable and cannot afford prolonged delays. They are asking the IRS to commit to a solid delivery timeline by the end of the week, so that recipients at least know what to expect.

NBC News reports that COVID cases are climbing again following a steep drop and then a leveling-off for several weeks. But doctors say patients in this wave are younger and not as ill. Frederick Davis at Northwell Health's Long Island Jewish Hospital says not only are cases requiring hospitalization nowhere near the "astronomical" levels from a year ago, but most cases are mild. More than 73 percent of people older than 65 has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and nearly half are fully vaccinated. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday stated that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are 90 percent effective against the virus in real-world conditions, with growing immunity illustrated by the shift in age groups most likely to seek care for COVID. The CDC said nationally, "the number of 25-to-49-year-olds visiting U.S. emergency departments for diagnosed COVID-19 is now higher than the number of visits among patients 65 and older."

A study in Pain said people with dementia may experience higher levels of pain 16 years pre-diagnosis, reports the U.S. National Institute on Aging . Researchers looked at the timeline of the association between dementia and self-reported pain via analysis of data on subjects collected for up to 27 years. Out of 9,046 participants, 567 developed dementia over the observation period. Those diagnosed with dementia reported slightly greater pain as early as 16 years before diagnosis, driven mainly by differences in pain interference. They reported steadily worsening pain levels relative to those who were never diagnosed with dementia. At time of diagnosis, people with dementia reported substantially more pain than people without dementia. Because dementia-associated brain changes begin decades before diagnosis, it is doubtful that pain causes or increases dementia risk, but rather chronic pain might be an early sign of dementia or simply correlated with dementia.

The Minnesota Department of Health has launched a new program to help low-income Asian American seniors access the COVID-19 vaccine with the help of community groups, reports NBC News . Under the program, the Phelan Family Pharmacy and the Hmong Medical Association coordinated to accelerate vaccinations in Hmong enclaves as an alternative to the state's online registration system. The Hmong Medical Association reached out to Hmong churches, nonprofits, ethnic radio stations, adult day care centers, and primary care clinics. Nationally, about 5 percent of Asian Americans have received COVID-19 shots, a rate comparable to their share of total cases and deaths and of the population, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet experts say these numbers conceal inequities among ethnic groups: East Asian Americans, for instance, have significantly different health outcomes from South Asian Americans and Southeast Asian Americans. State demographics also indicate disparities, as Asian Americans comprise 5 percent of Minnesota's population, but only 3 percent are immunized.

The Batavian reports that the New York State Department of Health has relaxed visitation and communal activities for senior residents of assisted-living communities. The new guidelines are based on U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidance, and they permit visitation more widely and for residents to go on outings without having to quarantine for two weeks upon return. "The new guidance will allow more frequent and meaningful interactions between residents and their loved ones," said Empire State Association of Assisted Living Executive Director Lisa Newcomb. She cites certain modifications, including the elimination of the requirement to shut down visitation and other activities for 14 days for all residents if there is a new positive resident or staff case of COVID-19. Moreover, standards for group activities and communal dining have been eased. 'The vaccine is the game changer," Newcomb said. "The overwhelming majority of our residents are fully vaccinated."

The Santa Fe Reporter reports that New Mexico's Department of Health (DOH) has declared that residents 75 years and older who are registered on the state's vaccine website no longer need an event code to schedule their vaccination appointments. Seniors will instead receive invitations to book appointments, and log in to vaccineNM.org using their confirmation codes and dates of birth. New Mexico's vaccine dashboard estimates that 70.1 percent of the 153,589 people in that age group have received at least one dose and 57 percent are fully vaccinated. "New Mexico has vaccinated the large majority of our seniors, and we have reached out to nearly all the rest," said DOH Secretary Tracie Collins. "We expect this change to make it easier for all remaining seniors to get their shots." DOH and the Aging and Long Term Services Department also said they are working together on other outreach efforts, including senior-specific vaccination events and home-bound vaccinations.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky warned at a Monday White House briefing that another surge in COVID-19 cases could become unavoidable as infections rose 10 percent, while President Biden urged a return of mask mandates, reports ABC News . "We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope," Walensky declared. "But right now, I'm scared." She has repeatedly warned that the nation would face another COVID-19 spike if Americans did not continue to wear masks, avoid travel, and maintain social distancing until more of the population is inoculated. Biden echoed Walensky's concerns at an event announcing more vaccine eligibility, calling for "every governor, mayor, and local leader to maintain and reinstate the mask mandate — please." Walensky said the CDC is witnessing increasing numbers of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, which she blamed on more travel in recent weeks, lifting restrictions, and looser behavior. "I think we are seeing that many of these states are opening up at levels that we wouldn't necessarily recommend," she stated. Walensky empathized with the many Americans impatient to return to normal, but pleaded at the briefing, "just hold on a little longer to get vaccinated when you can, so that all of those people that we all love will still be here when this pandemic ends."

U.S. News & World Report says exercise, mental stimulation, and massage can treat depression in dementia patients as well as — if not better than — medication, according to University of Toronto researchers. A review of 256 studies in the BMJ included more than 28,000 people with dementia with or without major depression. Drugs alone were no more effective than typical care in treating depression in these subjects, but 10 therapies were more effective than usual care. Such treatments included cognitive stimulation, exercise, reminiscence therapy, mental stimulation with a cholinesterase inhibitor, and massage and touch therapy. Also beneficial were multidisciplinary care psychotherapy plus reminiscence therapy and environmental modification, occupational therapy, exercise combined with social interaction and mental stimulation, and animal therapy. "Non-drug approaches were associated with a meaningful reduction in symptoms of depression in people with dementia and without a diagnosis of a major depressive disorder," explained the researchers. Massage and touch therapy, mental stimulation with a cholinesterase inhibitor, and mental stimulation plus exercise and social interaction were found to be particularly more effective than certain medications. The implication is that doctors should use more drug-free methods to treat depression and loneliness in dementia patients.