The Creativity and Aging Study: The Impact of Professionally Conducted Cultural Programs on Older Adults

Executive Summary In 2001, the National Endowment for the Arts developed a cooperative agreement with The George Washington University to conduct a multisite national study with the aim of measuring the impact of professionally conducted community based cultural programs on the general health, mental health, and social activities of older persons, age 65 and older. Referred to as the Creativity and Aging Study, the project’s formal title is “The Impact of Professionally Conducted Cultural Programs on Older Adults”. No previous study of this nature using an experimental design and a control group had been carried out. The study takes place in three different sites across the country—the metro Washington, DC area; Brooklyn; and San Francisco. Each site involves two groups—(1) the Intervention Group, comprised of older individuals involved in a weekly participatory art program, and (2) those involved in a Control Group, comprised of individuals involved in their ongoing activities as usual. Each site recruited at least 100 older persons—50 participants in the Intervention Group and Control Group alike. The overall study has had 300 participants—150 in the Intervention Groups, 150 in the Control Groups. The average age in all three sites, Intervention and Control Groups alike, was approximately 80 years of age, The age range has been 65-103 years. Approximately 30 percent of the participants reflect racial and ethnic minorities. The groups were very well matched in level of functioning at the start of study, with very similar physical health, mental health, and level of activity profiles. They were all interviewed three times by research assistants—(1) at the start of the study to establish a baseline; (2) a year later; and finally (3) two years after the baseline assessment. Results reveal strikingly positive differences in the intervention group (those involved in intensive participatory art programs) as compared to a control group not involved in intensive cultural programs. Compared to the Control Group, those involved in the weekly participatory art programs, at the one and two year follow-up assessments, reported: (A) better health, fewer doctor visits, and less medication usage; (B) more positive responses on the mental health measures; (C) more involvement in overall activities. Since the study has collected so much rich data, analyses—especially secondary data analyses—are expected to go on throughout 2007. There is considerable interest on the parts of graduate students to assist in the analyses of the secondary data. In conclusion, these results point to powerful positive intervention effects of these community-based art programs run by professional artists. They point to true health promotion and disease prevention effects. In that they also show stabilization and actual increase in community-based activities in general among those in the cultural programs, they reveal a positive impact on maintaining independence and on reducing dependency. This latter point demonstrates that these community-based cultural programs for older adults appear to be reducing risk factors that drive the need for long-term care

Redesigning Health Care for an Older America

With the goal of creating a new vision of health care for an older America, the International Longevity Center assembled a Health Care Task Force, a cadre of specialists in the fields of economics, social work, political science, and medicine. Its mandate is to focus on the development of an intergenerational life-span perspective of disease prevention and health maintenance, built on a strong foundation of structural reform medical care, by showing how strategies that enhance healthy aging can save money as well as improve quality of life. Midway into this ambitious four-year project, and with the hope of contributing to the national debate on health care, the Task Force established a list of guiding principles, with the belief that the longevity and healthy aging of today's older adults, the aging baby boomer generation and the generations that will follow, depend upon the health care decisions that are made today

Disparities in registration and use of an online patient portal among older adults: findings from the LitCog cohort

(C) The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved.Financial disclosure: This project was supported by the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG030611), the National Center for Research Resources (5UL1RR025741), and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (Grant 8UL1TR000150). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Smith is currently supported by a Cancer Research UK Fellowship

Family Caregiving: Family Fact Sheet #1

Family caregivers are a diverse group of individuals. Forty-eight percent of them care for spouses or life partners, 24 percent care for a parent, and 19 percent care for a child or grandchild. Approximately two out of every three caregivers are also working individuals. Almost half of family caregivers spend 40 hours per week on caregiving tasks. It is important for families to remember that there are resources available for them to utilize for support. The Eastern Agency on Aging, the University of Maine Center on Aging, Aroostook Area Agency on Aging, Senior Spectrum, Rosscare, Norumbega Medical, Horizons Health Services, Indian Township Tribal Health Center, and Bucksport Regional Health Center can assist

A New Age in Dementia Care: Turning Evidence into Practice

A New Age in Dementia Care: Turning Evidence into Practice Come celebrate the opening of the new Living Laboratory for Elder Care. September 17, 2008 7:30 am - 4:30 pm Thomas Jefferson University, Dorrance H. Hamilton Building 1001 Locust St., Philadelphia, PA 19107 Speakers Include: Christine Arenson, MD Associate Professor Director, Division of Geriatric Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine Jefferson Medical College Director, Eastern-Pennsylvania Delaware Geriatric Education Center Co-Director Jefferson InterProfessional Education Center Thomas Jefferson University Louis D. Burgio, PhD Harold R. Johnson Endowed Chair in Gerontology, Professor of Social Work Research Professor, Institute of Gerontology School of Medicine Adjunct Professor School of Nursing and Department of Psychology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI Janice P. Burke, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA Dean, Jefferson School of Health Professions Chair and Professor Department of Occupational Therapy Co-Executive Director Living Laboratory for Elder Care Jefferson College of Health Professions Thomas Jefferson University Christopher M. Callahan, MD Cornelius and Yvonne Pettinga Professor of Aging Research Director, Indiana University Center for Aging Research Investigator, Regenstrief Institute, Inc. Robert Egge Project Director Center for Health Transformation Washington, DC Lynn Friss Feinberg, MSW Deputy Director, National Center on Caregiving Family Caregiver Alliance San Francisco, CA Laura N. Gitlin, PhD Director, Jefferson Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy Co-Executive Director Living Laboratory for Elder Care Jefferson College of Health Professions Thomas Jefferson University Barry J. Jacobs, PsyD Licensed Psychologist Director of Behavioral Sciences Crozer-Keystone Family Medicine Residency Program Springfield, PA Katie Maslow, MSW Associate Director, Quality Care Advocacy Alzheimer’s Association Public Policy Division Washington, DC Nancy B. O’Connor Regional Administrator Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Philadelphia Regional Office United States Department of Health and Human Services Philadelphia, PA Catherine Verrier Piersol, MS, OTR/L Clinical Director, Living Laboratory for Elder Care Jefferson Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health Jefferson College of Health Professions Thomas Jefferson University Susan C. Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN Senior Vice President, Public Policy Institute AARP Washington, DC Barry W. Rovner, MD Professor Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience Director of Clinical Alzheimer’s Disease Research Farber Institute for Neurosciences Thomas Jefferson University Richard Schulz, PhD Professor of Psychiatry, Epidemiology, Sociology, Psychology, Community Health, and Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Director University Center for Social and Urban Research Associate Director University of Pittsburgh Institute on Aging Pittsburgh, PA Leslie M. Swann, PhD Aging Program Management Specialist United States Department of Health and Human Services United States Administration on Aging Washington, DC A tour of the new multidisciplinary Hamilton Building and reception to follo

Speaking with Barry Rovner, MD

Q: What Alzheimer’s related studies are you involved in currently at the Farber Institute for Neurosciences? Dr. Rovner: We are evaluating three exciting new disease-modifying drug treatments that may slow down the course of Alzheimer’s disease. I am also a Principal Investigator of Jefferson’s Center for Excellence in Neurodegenerative Diseases funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health Tobacco Settlement grant. We are testing innovative screening methods to identify dementia in community-based agencies serving older adults, as well as testing in-home skills training services to delay nursing home placement and reduce stress for a racially diverse group of family caregivers. This latter study is being conducted at the Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health, by Principal Investigator Laura N. Gitlin, PhD

Global case studies can help improve healthy aging and adult caregiving policies

The need to transform health and long-term care systems to adapt to an ageing population is a global issue. In October 2023, the LSE Aging and Health Incentives Lab and the University of Pennsylvania’s Population Aging Research Center convened a workshop on Healthy Aging and Adult Caregiving, featuring evidence on healthy aging with a global focus. Nilesh Raut gives an overview of the workshop and its key takeaways, which included case studies from the UK, US, and low- and middle-income countries worldwide

IC 037 Guide to HGAC - Agency (Houston Galveston Area Council) Records, 1975-1980

The HGAC Agency collection contains applications for Hermann Hospital, St. Luke’s, TCH, THI, Gulf Coast dialysis Center, Methodist, VA Hospital, West Houston Dialysis Center, UT System Cancer Center, and Zimmerman Medical Clinic Dialysis Center. The collection also contains annual reports, general information, spectrum, health service plan, health system plan draft, project review report, copies of the Health Times, newsletters, directory (water damaged), the Area Agency on Aging bulletin, and other related prints. See more at IC 037

Assistant Secretary for Aging to Announce Grants at UMaine on Oct. 18 [2002]

Josefina G. Carbonell, assistant secretary for Aging in the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, will be at the University of Maine on Friday Oct. 18 [2002] to announce three grants to be used for the development of a National Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Action Plan. The UMaine Center on Aging, in conjunction with the Maine Center for Osteoporosis Research and Education in Bangor, will receive one of those grants

Global aging: emerging challenges

This repository item contains a single issue of The Pardee Papers, a series papers that began publishing in 2008 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. The Pardee Papers series features working papers by Pardee Center Fellows and other invited authors. Papers in this series explore current and future challenges by anticipating the pathways to human progress, human development, and human well-being. This series includes papers on a wide range of topics, with a special emphasis on interdisciplinary perspectives and a development orientation.Aging policy frameworks were devised during a demographic and economic context in which population aging seemed confined to wealthy nations. These countries could afford retirement policies that supported older workers, decreased unemployment among younger workers, and decreased family pressure to provide old age care. This calculation was based in part on failure to anticipate three demographic trends: continual decline in fertility below replacement rate, continual gains in longevity, and the rise of population aging in poor and “under-developed” countries. These three trends now fuel a sense of crisis. In the global North, there is fear that increasing numbers of older adults will deplete state pension and health care systems. In the global South, the fear is that population aging coupled with family breakdown” requires such state intervention. Natural disaster metaphors, such as “agequake” and “age-tsunami,” illustrate fears of a “graying globe” in which population aging implies population decay and economic destruction. Yet, global aging trends develop over decades and are not easily reversed. Longer-range trends can be addressed through revising policy frameworks to incorporate how growing old is moving from global exception to expectation. Alexandra Crampton was a 2008–2009 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University. Her scholarship and teaching bring an anthropological perspective to theoretical and practical questions on aging, social welfare policy, social work practice, negotiation, and alternative dispute resolution. She has presented her work for the American Anthropological Association, the Gerontological Society of America, the Council on Social Work Education, and the Society for Social Work Research. She holds a joint PhD in Social Work and Anthropology from the University of Michigan