older

27Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

In Preventing Older Americans From Lacking Enough Quality Food, Social Security Benefits Play Key Role

Social Security benefits make it easier for older Americans to afford the food they need to live a healthy, active life, according to our recently published research. Although this finding may seem obvious, to our knowledge this is the first study to directly examine the link between income from Social Security in old age and food insecurity, whereby a household can’t get adequate food because it has insufficient money and other resources. We used data from a unique national household survey, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, to examine changes in the ability of a household to purchase food from year to year. We focused on how just under 1,000 households receiving Social Security benefits for the first time or experiencing an increase in Social Security benefits affected their food ins...

Celebrating And Empowering Stylish Older Women: The #Advancedstyle Movement

19Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

FASHION, STYLE

Celebrating And Empowering Stylish Older Women: The #Advancedstyle Movement

Until recently, the idea of paying close attention to mature women’s style would have, at best, been met with little interest from other consumers and the fashion industry but most likely completely ignored. After all, to be fashionable and feminine has typically been viewed as requiring youth. What could older female consumers possibly teach us about being stylish? Following the unexpected popularity of what’s known as the “advanced style” phenomenon, discussions about ageism, gender and fashion have been attracting increasing attention in the popular media, including the New York Times. The @advancedstyle Instagram account, created in 2008 by American street style photographer Ari Seth Cohen, helped fuel these critical conversations. Cohen’s celebration of the personal styles of regul...

How To Help Older Americans Given The Wrong Idea About Online Safety

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY

How To Help Older Americans Given The Wrong Idea About Online Safety

Recently, the U.S. Social Security Administration sent out an email to subscribers of its official blog explaining how to access social security statements online. Most people know to be suspicious of seemingly official emails with links to websites asking for credentials. But for older adults who are wary of the prevalence of scams targeting their demographic, such an email can be particularly alarming since they have been told that the SSA never sends emails. From our research designing cybersecurity safeguards for older adults, we believe there is legitimate cause for alarm. This population has been schooled in a tactical approach to online safety grounded in fear and mistrust – even of themselves – and focused on specific threats rather than developing strategies that enable them to ...

Millennials Drive For 8% Fewer Trips Than Older Generations

10Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIETY

Millennials Drive For 8% Fewer Trips Than Older Generations

Millennials – typically defined as those born between 1981 and 1996 – have gotten a lot of press, both positive and negative. Some argue that they are more public-spirited and less materialistic than baby boomers. Others say they are spoiled and entitled. Still others write that they are the same as earlier generations, but younger and with lower incomes. CC BY-ND Understanding how millennials behave has important practical implications for urban planning, industry evolution and climate change. For example, if millennials prefer to take a Lyft and skip the hassle of driving and parking, this could spell big changes for the automobile industry. But if their suburban soccer mom phase has merely been delayed, not skipped entirely, perhaps nothing will really change. We are scholars of busin...

Millennials Are Coming Out And Living In Their Gender Much Earlier Than Older Trans Generations

27Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

LGBTQ

Millennials Are Coming Out And Living In Their Gender Much Earlier Than Older Trans Generations

There are a few common identity milestones that transgender, or trans, people experience across their lives. One is starting to feel different than the sex assigned to them at birth. Another is identifying with a trans identity – for instance, as a trans man or genderqueer person, meaning they don’t identify with a binary gender such as a woman or a man. There also is the experience of living in line with this identity, which can include disclosing it to others, and changes to a person’s name, pronouns and appearance. And then there’s accessing gender-affirming medical care like puberty blockers, hormones or surgeries. These milestones can happen at any age in a person’s life, despite stereotypes that trans people must have always known they were trans. Some people may not go through all...

In The COVID-19 Era, Older Adults See Time Differently And Are Doing Better Than Younger People

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

In The COVID-19 Era, Older Adults See Time Differently And Are Doing Better Than Younger People

Time in the era of COVID-19 has taken on new meaning. “Blursday” is the new time word of the year – where every day seems the same when staying home and restricting socializing and work. As a public health and aging expert and founding director of the Texas A&M Center of Population Health and Aging, I have been studying the impacts of COVID-19 with an interest in debunking myths and identifying unexpected positive consequences for our aging population. It is common to view older adults as especially vulnerable. Public health statistics reinforce the picture of older adults infected with SARS-CoV-2 as more likely to have serious complications, to be hospitalized and to die. But what do we know about how older adults themselves are responding to social distancing restrictions in place...

Almost Two-Thirds Of Older Black Americans And Even More Latinos Can’t Afford To Live Alone Without Help

18Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Almost Two-Thirds Of Older Black Americans And Even More Latinos Can’t Afford To Live Alone Without Help

Older Americans who want to live independently face serious economic challenges. Half who live alone don’t have enough income to afford even a bare-bones budget in their home communities, and nearly 1 in 4 couples face the same problem. Those numbers add up to at least 11 million older adults who are struggling to make ends meet, a new analysis shows. The numbers are worse for older people of color. Dramatically higher percentages of Black, Latino and Asian older adults live on incomes that don’t meet their cost of living, even with Social Security. That can mean skipping needed health care, not having enough food, living in unhealthy conditions or having to move in with family. These disparities often reflect lifelong disadvantages that add up as people of color encounter structural ra...

Older Americans are risking coronavirus exposure to get their medications

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Older Americans are risking coronavirus exposure to get their medications

It’s been nearly a month since the U.S. government began urging older Americans to stay home to avoid exposure to the new coronavirus. That means many older adults may be running out of their usual 30-day supplies of medication. As the pandemic continues to spread, they increasingly face a difficult challenge: how to get the medications they need without putting themselves at risk. As health services researchers at the University of Michigan, we recently conducted a national survey to see how Americans over age 65 were responding to that dilemma. The results should be a call to action, both for older adults and for those who care about them. A national survey shines light on risky choices The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that older adults and anyone with chronic ...

Older people are at more risk from COVID-19 because of how the immune system ages

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Older people are at more risk from COVID-19 because of how the immune system ages

The rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic is taking a particularly harsh toll on older people. Data from the initial outbreak in China and then Italy show that infected people under the age of 60 are at low – but not no – risk of dying from COVID-19. Curiously, young children do not appear to be at increased risk of serious COVID-19 complications, in contrast to what happens with other viruses, like the seasonal flu. However, the statistics get grimmer as the patients get older. Whereas people in their 60s have a 0.4% chance of dying, people in their 70s have a 1.3% chance of dying, and people over 80 have a 3.6% chance of dying. While this may not sound like a high chance of death, during the current outbreak in Italy, 83% of those who succumbed to COVID-19 infection were over the age ...