Aging

People over 65 who live alone were more likely to describe their health as excellent or very good than were seniors who live with others, according to a study exploring connections between older Americans’ health status and their living arrangements. Conversely, older people living with others — whether related or unrelated to them — were […]

Mel Nickerson visits his wife, Donna, at the Turlock Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in April. Mel Nickerson moved his wife, who has Alzheimer’s disease, to the facility after he realized he could no longer care for her safely at home. (Courtesy of the Nickerson family) Donna Nickerson spent her last working years as the activity […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Janet Prochazka was active and outspoken, living by herself and working as a special education tutor. Then, in March, a bad fall landed her in the hospital. Doctors cared for her wounds and treated her pneumonia. But Prochazka, 75, didn’t sleep or eat well at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma […]

Assisted living residents who abuse other residents or staff are likely to have dementia or severe mental illness, afflictions that pose unappreciated risks in facilities occupied by vulnerable elderly adults, a new study reported. That abuse can include physical, verbal and sexual incidents, according to a study published online last month in the Journal of […]

Low-income Californians who are elderly and disabled were less likely to go to the emergency room or be hospitalized after their in-home caregivers participated in an intensive training program, according to a report. Under a pilot program, nearly 6,000 aides in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Contra Costa counties were trained in CPR and first […]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Thelma Atkins ended up in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Hospital-Highlands after a neighbor in her senior living center ran over her feet with a motorized scooter. Terri Middlebrooks, a nurse at the hospital, tried to figure out how active the 92-year-old Atkins was before the incident. “Are you up […]

NEW YORK — The Mount Sinai Hospital emergency room looks and sounds like hundreds of others across the country: Doctors rush through packed hallways; machines beep incessantly; paramedics wheel stretchers in as patients moan in pain. “It’s like a war zone,” said physician assistant Emmy Cassagnol. “When it gets packed, it’s overwhelming. Our sickest patients are […]

PACE, a program to help keep older people out of nursing homes, allows Vivian Malveaux, 81, to live at home in Denver. InnovAge, which runs her program, converted to a for-profit company last year. (Nick Cote for The New York Times and KHN) DENVER — Inside a senior center here, nestled along a bustling commercial […]

Dr. Lee Gross is worried. He has practiced family medicine in North Port, Florida, near Sarasota, for 14 years. But he and two partners are the last small, independent practice in the town of 62,000. Everyone else has moved away, joined larger groups, or become salaried employees of hospitals or health companies. “We’re struggling to […]