Press Releases

Speaking today at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, Gerontological Society of America member Jasmine Travers, PhD, MHS, RN, AGPCNP-BC, told lawmakers that America’s long-term care system relies on a workforce — one that is often unseen and unheard — commonly known as direct care workers. And despite the critical role of this workforce, it faces significant challenges in recruitment, retention, and morale that threaten its sustainability.

“Insights & Implications in Gerontology: The Vital Role of Nutrition in Brain Health,” a new publication from the Gerontological Society of America, explores nutritional choices that have been shown to improve cognition and decrease the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults.

In a new study from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, researchers have determined that in older men, the overall effort put into coping was generally more important for longevity than the specific coping strategies used, or how stressful they considered the problem to be shortly after it had happened.

People with dementia and those who care for them should be screened for loneliness, so providers can find ways to keep them socially connected, according to experts at the University of California, San Francisco (USCF) and Harvard, who made the recommendations after finding that both groups experienced declines in social well-being as the disease progressed.   

An innovative Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) research program that enlists older Black adults to walk through and reminisce about historically Black neighborhoods in Portland — which now look very different after rapid change through gentrification — may help improve cognitive function, a new study finds.