Cultural Comparison of Chronic Conditions, Functional Status, and Acceptance in Older African-American and White Adults

Acceptance of functional decline accompanying chronic illness is challenging for all elders, and even more so for African-American elders. This study examined functional status and the number, types, and acceptance of chronic conditions in 16 African-American and 46 White elders. African-American elders reported better functioning but resembled Whites in number of chronic conditions and acceptance. All African-Americans reported hypertension; 76% of Whites reported arthritis. Greater acceptance was correlated with fewer chronic conditions (r = -.23, p \u3c .05) and better functioning (r = -.59, p \u3c .01). Poorer functioning (i.e., functional disability) was correlated with more chronic conditions (r = .27, p \u3c .05). Culturally sensitive interventions are needed to enhance elders\u27 acceptance of chronic conditions and to improve their functioning

Improved Cardiorespiratory Fitness Is Associated with Increased Cortical Thickness in Mild Cognitive Impairment

Cortical atrophy is a biomarker of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that correlates with clinical symptoms. This study examined changes in cortical thickness from before to after an exercise intervention in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and healthy elders. Thirty physically inactive older adults (14 MCI, 16 healthy controls) underwent MRI before and after participating in a 12-week moderate intensity walking intervention. Participants were between the ages of 61 and 88. Change in cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed using residualized scores of the peak rate of oxygen consumption (V̇O2peak) from pre- to post-intervention. Structural magnetic resonance images were processed using FreeSurfer v5.1.0. V̇O2peak increased an average of 8.49%, which was comparable between MCI and healthy elders. Overall, cortical thickness was stable except for a significant decrease in the right fusiform gyrus in both groups. However, improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness due to the intervention (V̇O2peak) was positively correlated with cortical thickness change in the bilateral insula, precentral gyri, precuneus, posterior cingulate, and inferior and superior frontal cortices. Moreover, MCI participants exhibited stronger positive correlations compared to healthy elders in the left insula and superior temporal gyrus. A 12-week moderate intensity walking intervention led to significantly improved fitness in both MCI and healthy elders. Improved V̇O2peak was associated with widespread increased cortical thickness, which was similar between MCI and healthy elders. Thus, regular exercise may be an especially beneficial intervention to counteract cortical atrophy in all risk groups, and may provide protection against future cognitive decline in both healthy elders and MCI

Psychometric Properties of a Measure of Acceptance of Long-Standing Health Problems

Acceptance of chronic illness is important for health promotion and for improving the quality of life of elders with chronic conditions. Thus, a reliable and valid measure of acceptance is needed for this population. Currently available measures of acceptance do not focus specifically on accepting chronic conditions. This study of 176 elders with chronic conditions examined the psychometric properties of an adapted measure of acceptance—the Ideas About Long-Standing Health Problems (IALHP) questionnaire. Although the findings provided beginning evidence for internal reliability and construct validity to support its potential usefulness in elders, further scale development is recommended

Privacy Mining from IoT-based Smart Homes

Recently, a wide range of smart devices are deployed in a variety of environments to improve the quality of human life. One of the important IoT-based applications is smart homes for healthcare, especially for elders. IoT-based smart homes enable elders' health to be properly monitored and taken care of. However, elders' privacy might be disclosed from smart homes due to non-fully protected network communication or other reasons. To demonstrate how serious this issue is, we introduce in this paper a Privacy Mining Approach (PMA) to mine privacy from smart homes by conducting a series of deductions and analyses on sensor datasets generated by smart homes. The experimental results demonstrate that PMA is able to deduce a global sensor topology for a smart home and disclose elders' privacy in terms of their house layouts.Comment: This paper, which has 11 pages and 7 figures, has been accepted BWCCA 2018 on 13th August 201

Delivering elder-care environments utilizing TV-channel based mechanisms

In this paper, we present a smart environment for elderly. What makes the development of such system challenging is that the concept of smartness for elderly brings to the extreme the idea of invisibility of the technology. In our experience, elders are well-disposed to new technologies, provided that those will not require significant changes - namely, they are invisible - to their habits. Starting from this consideration, 200 caregivers responses were collected by questionnaire, so as to better understand elders' needs and habits. A system was subsequently developed allowing elders to access a number of "modern web services" as standard TV channels: at channel 43 there is the health status, at channel 45 the photos of the family, at 46 the agenda of the week, just to mention few of the available services. The content of such services is automatically generated by the smart devices in the environment and is managed by the caregivers (e.g., family members) by simple web apps. Fourteen families were asked to install the system in their house. The results of these experiments confirm that the proposed system is considered effective and user-friendly by elders

Materials analysis of fluorocarbon films for MEMS applications

In this paper the results of the materials analysis of fluorocarbon (FC) films are presented. The properties of the fluorocarbon films are comparable to those of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), better known under the trademarks such as teflon and fluon. The properties of PTFE are desirable for MEMS applications and enable new designs, new applications and new technological processing routes for microsystems. Therefore, FC films have a tremendous potential for MEMS applications. Furthermore, FC films can easily be deposited via spin coating, e-beam evaporation, in conventional reactive ion etchers and in plasma-enhanced deposition chambers using a carbonhydrotrifluoride plasma facilitating the use of the films for micro electro-mechanical structures. The films deposited in a reactive ion etcher are extremely chemical resistant. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses results are presente

Correlates of Poverty and Participation in Food Assistance Programs among Hispanic Elders in Massachusetts

Hispanics are a rapidly growing population in Massachusetts, but little is known about the health, nutrition, and economic situation of the elder segment of these groups. In this report, we examine factors associated with poverty and the use of food assistance programs, using data from an NIA-funded project on Hispanic elders in Massachusetts. Poverty is shown to be a major problem with differences across Hispanic subgroups. Puerto Rican and Dominican elders have lower incomes, on average, than other Hispanics—mainly Cubans, and Central and South Americans—or than non-Hispanic whites living in the same neighborhoods. Older age, lower education, and living alone are associated with poverty within this population. Limited income sources and recent immigration are also important factors. Hispanic elders are more likely to receive SSI benefits, but are much less likely to have pension income. Financial insecurity in old age among Hispanics is associated with more chronic ailment and mobility limitations. Puerto Rican and Dominican elders have the highest poverty and disability rates and report the most food insecurity. However, with the exception of the Food Stamp program, participation in food programs tends to be very low for these Hispanic elders. Given the prevalence of problems demonstrated by these groups, more attention to program outreach and adaptation for Hispanic elders is needed.

Work-related psychological health and psychological type among lead elders within the Newfrontiers network of churches in the United Kingdom

Building on a series of recent studies concerned with assessing work-related psychological health and psychological type among various groups of church leaders, this study reports new data provided by 134 Lead Elders within the Newfrontiers network of churches in the United Kingdom who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales (FPTS) together with the two scales of the Francis Burnout Inventory (FBI) concerned with emotional exhaustion and satisfaction in ministry. Compared with other groups of church leaders, Lead Elders within the Newfrontiers network of churches reported lower levels of emotional exhaustion and higher levels of satisfaction in ministry. Compared with other groups of church leaders, there was a higher proportion of extraverts among Lead Elders within the Newfrontiers network of churches. There was only a weak association between psychological type and burnout

Investigation of the correlation between economical-social factors and self-esteem of elderly residents in Rasht nursing homes

Introduction: In attention to the effect of self-esteem on elders health improvement, considering economical and social factors are of importance. Objective: This research was carried out to investigate involving factors with self-esteem of elders residing in Rasht elderly nursing homes during 2008. Methods: This is a descriptive study conducted on 32 elders residing in elderly nursing homes. The qualified elders filled the questionnaires included demographic characteristics and Rosenberg s Self-esteem measuring scale. The Pearson correlation between variables was determined using SPSS soft ware version 15. Results: The average age of the participants was 73.53 (± 8.31). 4% of participants were widowed, 43.8% didn't have any children, 87.5% were uneducated, and 12.5% had primary education. Their average time of residence was 1357±17.11days. The source of income for 59.4 % of participants was through children and relatives. 27 elders (84.4%) had frequent visits with relatives. 34.4% of them had history of a disease. There were significant correlations between number of children, marriage, education with job and number of previous jobs with gender; job with education and number of previous jobs; and visit frequency with education and time of the last visit. There was negative significant correlation between age and self esteem, but positive correlation between economical situation and self esteem. Conclusion: Economical and social status of elders residing in elderly nursing homes has significant effect on their self-esteem

Staying Gold: How a group of university students created intergenerational connections through art museum programming and community collaboration

In this article, we examine ways in which an intergenerational art program, Stay Gold, helped build relationships between queer youth and elders in an art museum to combat loneliness, isolation, and disconnection. This museum program was initially designed by university students in a graduate art education course to help form connections between queer youth and elders through art-making, sharing stories, and conversations about art. Participants play a large role in shaping the direction of the program, and the program continues to grow and evolve to include more opportunities for collaboration between youth and elders through group projects and dialogue. Although this is not a formal study with IRB approval, the participants mentioned here are all over the age of 18 and gave written permission to use their words and art in the article