The Florida Life Care Residents Association (FLiCRA) is applauding Governor Ron DeSantis for signing House Bill 1033 late last month. The new law goes into effect in January 2020. Section 651.034, F.S., of the law establishes a framework of required actions if a provider falls below specified levels of three key indicators at the time of the annual report: occupancy, days cash on hand, and the debt service coverage ratio. It also creates a definition for "impaired" to allow for earlier intervention by the state's Office of Insurance Regulation (or OIR), the goal being to prevent harm to Florida consumers. Furthermore, the definition of "manager," "management," or "management company" is codified under the new law, and accompanying provisions close a loophole that has permitted management serving without a written contract to evade regulation.

A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found older adults taking serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) endured more adverse events compared with placebos, reports the Psychiatry & Behavioral Health Learning Network . The rate of adverse events with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) did not diverge from placebo in the study population. Included in the analysis were 19 randomized controlled trials and two observational studies that encompassed outpatient, rehabilitation, and assisted living community environments. "The prevalence of depression in community-based adults 65 years of age and older is 15 percent to 20 percent in the United States, although estimations are subject to bias; depression prevalence of more than 50 percent in older assisted living community residents was reported," the researchers noted. "In addition to the modest efficacy provided by antidepressant medications, clinicians must consider the safety risks associated with the treatments." Both SNRIs and SSRIs were associated with more study withdrawals because of adverse events versus a placebo. In addition, duloxetine was linked to more falls.

Increasing numbers of older adults are spurning the traditional concept of retirement, opting to continue working, return to employment, or volunteer, reports the North Jersey Record . The National Council on Aging's Maura Porcelli said 53 percent of 60- to 64-year-olds worked in 1994 versus 63 percent now. In addition, about 40 percent of currently employed 65-and-up workers have come out of retirement. "Baby boomers have flipped the script on what retirement looks like," Porcelli said. "They still feel vital, they still have contributions to make to the workplace beyond 65." Longer lifespans, fewer pensions, inadequate savings, and rising healthcare and housing costs factor into some decisions not to retire. Meanwhile, Paul Irving at the Milken Institute's Center for the Future of Aging noted employers are increasingly acting on workers' desire for longer employment, with the health and financial services industries striving especially to draw and retain older talent. Porcelli added that older workers have demonstrated greater stability and reliability and have a wealth of knowledge that can be expensive to replace.

A new research review analyzed the results of 57 published studies of footwear and health issues encountered by older adults before concluding that older adults should take care to select shoes that fit properly and feel good, reports Physician's Assistant . Even shoes that fit well at younger ages may not be good for older adults, because feet change shape as adults age. Ill-fitting shoes can cause painful aches in toes, feet, heels, and more, while shoes that fit well can alleviate foot discomfort. The study team found that older adults experience improved gait and reduced pain when they get new shoes tailored to match their foot length and width. Meanwhile, the study team suggested that older women should try not to wear heels, or only wear low, broad heels with adequate support. One specialist who was not involved with the study team, Dr. Selene Parekh of the North Carolina Orthopedic Clinic and Duke University, said that the study group did well in outlining basic footwear features that can potentially help older adults, but suggested there is more work to be done.

A study in Annals of Family Medicine found older African Americans in the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system treated with metformin for diabetes had a significantly reduced risk for dementia compared to individuals on sulfonylureas, reports Healio . The researchers analyzed medical records of 73,761 people — 10,559 of them African American — treated at VA hospitals between 2000 and 2015 who had not received diabetes medications or a dementia diagnosis before fiscal year 2002. African Americans were 58.2 years old, on average, compared to 61.3 years among whites. After controlling for confounding, metformin use was associated with a much lower risk for dementia versus sulfonylureas in African Americans. The strongest link was observed in African Americans 50 to 64 years old, while metformin was significantly associated with lower risk for dementia in both blacks and whites 65 to 74 years old. "African Americans suffer more diabetes-related cognitive decline than whites," noted Jeffrey F. Scherrer at Saint Louis University. "African Americans are more likely to have cardiovascular disease before dementia, general inflammation, and are at higher risk for vascular dementia. Metformin appears to reduce risk for cardiovascular disease and has anti-inflammatory effects. Therefore, these additional metformin effects may be particularly beneficial for African Americans."

AARP is supporting congressional and legal efforts to improve the lives of older LGBT individuals, reports the Sierra Sun Times . AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond has written members of the U.S. Senate to endorse the Equality Act, which provides equal treatment under the law for LGBT individuals by barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. She said employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, credit, and the jury system would be affected by the bill. A 2018 AARP poll found 34 percent of LGBT older adults were concerned that they would have to conceal their identity in order to access suitable housing as they aged. Over 75 percent voiced concern about having adequate family or social supports to rely on as they got older. Meanwhile, AARP and AARP Foundation have joined other groups in filing an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court to support lawsuits recognizing federal employment civil rights protections for LGBT employees. The high court will consider three related LGBT employment cases in the fall session.

A study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research suggests widespread pain is an independent contributor to fracture risk among older adults, reports Healio . Analysis of data from 1,099 adults found fractures occurring at any site and categorized them as any fractures, vertebral, nonvertebral, hip, and major fractures. Subjects reported 450 fractures at baseline, and 154 new ones over 10.7 years of follow-up. "Those who reported a greater number of painful sites were more likely to be female, heavier and shorter, have a greater body-mass index, be physically inactive, have more comorbidities, a higher reported use of pain medication, a greater falls risk score, as well as higher prevalent and incident fractures," the researchers noted. Prevalent fractures grew with increasing number of painful sites in a dose-response manner for fractures at any site, nonvertebral sites, and hip, while results for major and vertebral fractures were insignificant. Subjects reporting pain at five to seven sites had a higher risk for incident fractures at any site, major fracture, and vertebral fracture, versus participants reporting pain at two sites or fewer, even following adjustment for falls risk and bone mineral density.

A Chinese-Italian study published in Information Fusion proposed a gait-based biometric identification technique for seniors with wearable devices, reports Phys.org . The researchers described a gait template synthesis algorithm to ameliorate the problem of intra-subject gait fluctuation, with the addition of an arbitration-based score-level fusion algorithm. Two matching algorithms make preliminary decisions, and a third algorithm provides a final decision if the preliminary decisions have inconsistencies. The proposal's feasibility was confirmed using a public dataset containing acceleration signals from three inertial measurement units worn by users age 64 and older, which was shared by Osaka University eight years ago. The experimental outcomes demonstrated that the average recognition rate reached 96.7 percent, indicating the method was appropriate for robust gait-based identification of seniors.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found 23 percent of U.S. workers, including nearly 20 percent of those over 50, expect to continue working past retirement age, reports the Associated Press . Government data estimated that about one in five people 65 and older was working or actively seeking employment in June. "The average retirement age that we see in the data has gone up a little bit, but it hasn't gone up that much," said Anqi Chen at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. "So people have to live in retirement much longer, and they may not have enough assets to support themselves in retirement." Fourteen percent of respondents under the age of 50 and 29 percent over 50 said they feel "extremely" or "very prepared" financially for retirement, another 40 percent feel "somewhat prepared," and about one-third feel "unprepared." Among the fully retired cohort, 38 percent feel "very" or "extremely prepared," while 25 percent feel "not very" or "not at all prepared."

Research from Oregon Health & Science University published in eLife found a short workout could significantly impact one's learning and memory, reports CookingLight . The study involved mice completing single, short bursts of exercise equal to a person walking 4,000 steps, with brain activity monitored for three days afterward. A short workout was found to boost activity in the hippocampus, the region of the brain that governs learning and memory, and which plays a key role in cognitive decline and Alzheimer's. The team's next step will entail pairing short sessions of exercise with learning tasks to better understand the effect of physical activity on learning and memory. The study could offer insight into preventing dementia in the future.