A study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) published in The Lancet predicts Spain will pass Japan as the country with the highest life expectancy by 2040, while the United States is expected to plummet significantly, reports CNN . Spanish citizens will live for 85.8 years on average, edging out 85.7 years in Japan, and 85.2 years in Switzerland. Meanwhile, the U.S. will experience the steepest decline in ranking of all high-income countries, falling from 43rd place in 2016 to 64th by 2040, with an average life expectancy of 79.8. China's ranking is projected to climb 29 places to 39th. Americans will live only 1.1 years longer on average in 2040 versus 2016, compared to the average global rise of 4.4 years over the same interval. Factors underpinning the most premature deaths are high blood pressure, high body mass index, high blood sugar, tobacco use, and alcohol use. Growth in drug-related deaths is believed to represent one factor in the projected U.S. decline, with accidental overdoses causing 63,600 deaths in 2016. "Whether we see significant progress or stagnation depends on how well or poorly health systems address key health drivers," says IHME's Kyle Foreman. Spain is one of several European countries that offers tax-funded healthcare, with the World Health Organization ranking their healthcare system the seventh best globally.

Multiple studies have found osteoporosis to be frequently overlooked as even a possibility in men, reports U.S. News & World Report . In one study, men aged 36 to 55 on average received failing scores on their total knowledge about the disease, their perceived vulnerability, and their beliefs about the seriousness of the condition. This may be partly due to the fact that "men are born with greater bone mass, and men do not have a menopause that gives them a large bone loss in the five years following the onset of menopause," notes Creighton University Professor Robert R. Recker. Experts also say health professionals should be more attentive to osteoporosis in men. "If a woman goes to the ER with a hip fracture, 49 percent of the time she will have some sort of follow-up with a doctor," says Ohio State University Professor Laura Ryan. Meanwhile, "men's likelihood of getting any sort of follow-up — to discuss the possibility of having osteoporosis, the need for bone density testing or medications — is less than 5 percent." Berkeley Madonna's Smita Nayak says there are unique risk factors for men, including low testosterone levels and use of androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer.

A study published in The Gerontologist determined at-risk older adults are less likely to be hospitalized for fall-related injuries if they have a "fall plan of care," according to Safety+Health . The researchers examined more than 12,000 cases of men and women 65 or older who had visited their primary care physician between Sept. 11, 2012, and Oct. 30, 2015. The seniors were categorized as either at-risk with no fall plan of care, at-risk with a plan, or not at risk. At-risk seniors with a fall plan of care were 0.6 times less likely to be hospitalized from a fall than those who lacked a plan. "Fall prevention activities such as raising awareness about fall risk, identifying individual risk for fall, discussing fall risk prevention strategies, and providing referrals to fall risk reduction programs in the community for older adults were shown to reduce fall-related hospitalizations," notes Binghamton University Professor Yvonne Johnston. She also says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Stopping Elderly Accidents Deaths and Injuries initiative has helped seniors become more aware of conditions that contribute to falls, take steps to modify home environments to lower their risk, participate in prevention programs, and get involved in physical activities to improve strength and balance.

A study published in the British Medical Journal associated pre-eclampsia with an elevated risk of later dementia, particularly vascular dementia, reports Medical Xpress . The researchers analyzed data for more than 1.1 million women in Denmark who gave birth at least once between 1978 and 2015 and had not been diagnosed with heart disease, heart attack, stroke, heart failure, diabetes, or dementia before first birth. Ninety-five percent of the women were younger than 45 at the start of follow-up, and mean age at the end of follow-up was 49. After accounting for age and previous births, the researchers found women with a history of pre-eclampsia had more than three times the risk of vascular dementia later in life versus those with no history of pre-eclampsia. The link seemed less profound for late onset disease compared to early onset disease, and persisted even after accounting for other potentially influential factors, including diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Meanwhile, a history of pre-eclampsia was only modestly connected to risk of Alzheimer's and other/unspecified types of dementia. The researchers suggested that asking about a history of pre-eclampsia "could help physicians to identify women who might benefit from screening for early signs of disease, allowing for early clinical intervention."

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has allocated a research grant to investigate the effects of the mTOR protein complex in people with Down syndrome (DS), seeking insights into Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, reports Medical Xpress . Irregularities in mTOR functioning incur two distinct neuropathologies: accumulation in the brain of plaques composed of the protein amyloid beta, and depositions of the tau protein that clump within neuronal cell bodies, forming neurofibrillary tangles. Plaques and tangles, which are classic hallmarks of AD, also manifest in the brains of virtually all persons with DS. The NIH-funded study aims to address whether disruption of the mTOR pathway offers hints as to the development of plaques and tangles and the onset of dementia in both DS and AD. The researchers also will seek a link between mTOR dysregulation and necroptosis, which also is implicated in AD and DS pathology. The most important goal of the research will be to explore whether molecular drivers of AD pathology in people with DS yield new insights into the early mechanisms underlying the development of sporadic Alzheimer's.

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests most older adults taking multiple prescription medications would be willing to reduce their daily regime to minimize their risk of side effects, reports Reuters . Ninety percent of people 65 and older are willing to stop taking one or more medications if recommended by their doctor, while 66 percent would like to cut back on the total number of medicines they take. About 50 percent of persons 65 and up take at least five medications, and drugs that are safe and effective by themselves can become dangerous in certain combinations and contribute to side effects like dizziness, cognitive impairment, falls, hospitalizations, and deaths. The study examined survey data of 1,981 Medicare beneficiaries. Most had two or more chronic medical conditions, and more than half were no older than 74. About 56 percent of participants took no more than five medications on a regular basis, but 40 percent took at least six drugs regularly. In comparison to those who took fewer than six drugs, those taking more were nearly three times more likely to be willing to stop taking one or more drugs. Meanwhile, people with more chronic medical problems were more likely to want to stop taking at least one drug than those with fewer health issues.

The Maryland Department of Aging is running a free pilot program in which older adults can enroll to receive a daily phone call to check on their well-being, reports Herald-Mail Media . The Maryland Senior Call Check program is open to Marylanders at least 65 years old, and Maryland is the first U.S. state to offer such a free service, says the Department's Harry Rogoff. Enrollees determine a 60-minute time block when they can be called on a landline or cellphone each day between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. If they do not answer, two more attempts will be made. If those calls go unanswered, a designated family member, neighbor, or friend will be contacted and encouraged to check on the senior.

Many have praised artificial intelligence as a great tool for employee hiring because it can hide demographics and avoid the biases of hiring managers, reports the Washington Post . However, a recent Reuters report about a project at Amazon to use artificial intelligence to recruit workers found the tool was trained to evaluate applicants by observing patterns in resumes submitted over 10 years, most of which came from men. According to Reuters, the system "taught itself that male candidates were preferable," and penalized resumes that included the word "women's" or graduates from two all-women's colleges. The tool, which was scrapped by the start of 2017, was "never used by Amazon recruiters to evaluate candidates," according to a company spokeswoman. Researchers say the study is a good example of what to watch for when using artificial intelligence in hiring. "This is the biggest risk of A.I. in recruiting, that it will it perpetuate all the biases we've had," said Josh Bersin, an analyst who studies workplace technology and advises companies. Brian Kropp, group vice president for Gartner's human resources practice, added that he has 10 to 20 examples of how employers have tried to create algorithms to eliminate bias in the hiring process, but "all they've done is institutionalized biases that existed before or created new ones."

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) has awarded a supplemental grant of $70,000 to the National Ombudsman Resource Center to address the problems of opioids and involuntary move-outs in long-term care communities. The grant will initially supply technical assistance and training to a group of long-term care ombudsman programs. These programs will convene in a learning collaborative along with designated legal aid programs serving the same geographic regions to engage in peer-to-peer learning, and in-depth training and technical assistance to develop complaint advocacy and legal tools. The strategies and tools cultivated via the project will serve as a resource for all ombudsman programs. The grant also will underwrite a short-term project to better understand residents' experiences with pain management. This will include an examination of opioid use, causes and results of misuse, and how drug diversion and other consequences of opioid misuse by others can affect residents.

A study published in The Lancet Psychiatry found adults 65 and older who self-harm have a higher risk of death from unnatural causes, especially suicide, reports Medical Xpress . The researchers focused on self-harm episodes among older men and women registered at 674 general practices in Britain between 2001 and 2014. To probe mortality risk following self-harm, they compared data from 2,454 of these individuals with 48,921 persons without a history of self-harm. Over the study period, 4,124 subjects had an episode of self-harm, and 58 percent were women while 62 percent had previously received mental health diagnoses. Drug overdose was the most common method of self-harm, followed by cutting. Just 12 percent of subjects who had self-harmed were referred to mental health services within a year of their initial episode. Referrals were 33 percent likely for older adults registered at practices located in the most deprived areas versus those from more affluent communities. Nearly 75 percent of people who had harmed themselves were prescribed psychotropics, most commonly antidepressants. One in seven older adults had a self-harm episode recur within a year of the initial incident. Older self-harming adults were 19 times more likely to die from unnatural causes in the first year after a self-harm episode, and 145 times more likely to die of suicide during the 13-year follow up.