Research, Expert Opinions, Explorations (All: p5)

Alzheimer's Thermostat Design: Jeeves vs. Nurse Ratched

Thoughts about thermostats and people with dementia. Remember Jeeves, and Nurse Ratched? Imagine they were in charge of designing products for older adults. I wish we had the sort of products I imagine Jeeves would have designed for Bertie Wooster. Unfortunately, we seem to get the products Nurse Ratched might have dreamed up for the unfortunate inmates of "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest".

Read: "Alzheimer's Thermostat Design: Jeeves vs. Nurse Ratched"

Modifiable Alzheimer's Risk Factors. Alzheimer's Prevalence and cost

The Top Modifiable Risk Factors for Alzheimer's

This article describes the top modifiable Alzheimer's risk factors, and explains what you can do to reduce them. Currently there are no truly effective disease-altering treatments for Alzheimer's, and by 2050 13 million Americans are predicted to have Alzheimer's. The good news is that a number of the risk factors for Alzheimer's can be reduced by appropriate behavior.

Read: "The Top Modifiable Risk Factors for Alzheimer's"

Get A Ride Anywhere - New Options for Older Adults

This article is about some exciting new alternatives that make getting from point A to point B by car much easier than in the past for those who don't want to, or are not able to, just jump in their own car. We consider Uber, Lyft, Flywheel, taxicabs, and recommend the best rideshare app for older adults.

Read: "Get A Ride Anywhere - New Options for Older Adults"

How to use Uber, the ride sharing App

We think ride sharing App's like Uber are a great new resource that can help older adults get around more easily. This article (with videos) will describe how to get a ride using the Uber smart phone application, after first downloading the App and setting it up.

Read: "How to use Uber, the ride sharing App"

mobile alert systems, reviews and comparison tests

Mobile Alert Systems: Comparison Testing

We did hands-on, comparative evaluations of mobile alerts: a specific sub-category of medical alert systems. We looked at appearance, ease of use, speed to respond when we pressed the "help" button, how well the "location capability" worked in various different locations, battery life, sound quality, price, and more. While none of the products was "perfect", several worked rather well. But some fell short.

Read: "Mobile Alert Systems: Comparison Testing"

Jar openers for seniors, and for arthritis

Best Jar Opener for Older Adults

Our explorer circles of older adults evaluated a range of jar openers, and found big differences between them. If you need a jar opener to help open jars for whatever reason, this synthesis will tell you which ones our Longevity Explorers liked and why they liked them.

Read: "Best Jar Opener for Older Adults"

How to choose a medical alert system. Selecting the best medical alert system for you.

Medical Alert Systems: Help!

We kept getting asked "which medical alert system is best?"; and "how do I choose the right medical alert system for me?". This independent, objective, hands-on research tries to answer those questions. If you are looking for a medical alert system, either for yourself or for an older adult such as a parent, this piece of research is for you.

Read: "Medical Alert Systems: Help!"

Retirement Living Options

When it comes to retirement living options, the question of whether to stay at home or to move often looms large. Here are the things to consider so you make the right decision.

Read: "Retirement Living Options"

Choosing different retirement living options

Retirement Living: Comparison Matrix & Talk

Retirement Living expert John Milford has created this talk and comparison matrix of pros and cons of different retirement living alternatives, using San Francisco Bay Area examples to illustrate the comparison process. Details include entry fee sizes, ongoing financial obligations, application requirements, and which entities oversee the different housing types.

Read: "Retirement Living: Comparison Matrix & Talk"

Caring for Elderly Parents, Dealing with Elderly Parents

Caring for & Dealing with Elderly Parents: The Books

In a previous article I did a little research to find the 10 "best selling" books on the topic of Aging Parents (on Amazon). I have now waded through them all, and in this article I summarize my impressions of the different books, in the hope that you can leverage my work so you need only focus on the ones that seem most useful for you.

Read: "Caring for & Dealing with Elderly Parents: The Books"

Joe Maxwell's Universal Design Kitchen

This article describes a piece of universal design (a kitchen) from 83 yr old designer Joe Maxwell. When you read about Joe's kitchen design below from the 1950's you can't help wondering why we don't see more Universal Design in mainstream products.

Read: "Joe Maxwell's Universal Design Kitchen"

The Best Fall Prevention Program

Concerned about Falls? This article is designed to help you decide which (if any) is the best Fall Prevention Program for you. And to help you choose between the Fall Prevention programs available in your town, state and country.

Read: "The Best Fall Prevention Program"

Fall Prevention Exercises for Seniors

We look at different options for the fall prevention exercises component of a fall prevention program, and how to decide which exercises for seniors program would work best to reduce your fall risk, in this second part of our work on choosing the right fall prevention program.

Read: "Fall Prevention Exercises for Seniors"

Cane with light: Older adult explorers testing lighted canes

Best Lighted Cane

Our Explorer circles of older adults wanted a walking cane with a light that would help make getting out at night safer. The Explorers found some promising lighted canes online, purchased a few that looked especially good, tried them out, and decided on one which was "the best".

Read: "Best Lighted Cane"

Toenail Clippers for Elderly People

Our circles of older adults have been exploring toenail clippers for elderly people. They explain that older adults often have nails that are hard to cut or hard to reach. The explorers are especially interested in toenail clippers for thick toenails, and toenail clippers that will work when a person has arthritis, and thus can not exert a strong grip on the nail clipper.

Read: "Toenail Clippers for Elderly People"

Caring from Afar: Guide to Home Sensor Systems

Read our report on this new category of products, designed to help seniors stay at home longer, and to help their families worry about them less. There are important lessons to be learned about which ones work, and for which types of circumstance they are optimal.

Read: "Caring from Afar: Guide to Home Sensor Systems"

Ideas for Apps for Seniors

At a conference organized by San Francisco's Institute on Aging, I ran an interactive "exploration", in which we asked attendees to vote on "Senior Apps they Like", or to submit ideas they have for "There should be an App for that". We got quite a few interesting ideas, and this article reports the results of the session.

Read: "Ideas for Apps for Seniors"

Video presentation: what features matter in a rollator (walker)?

Best Rollator (Walker): Older Adults Explore

When acquiring a Rollator or Walker, which features matter for a given individual? And how does one decide which is the best walker or rollator to get for yourself, or a parent or spouse? The Longevity Explorer community explored questions like these.

Read: "Best Rollator (Walker): Older Adults Explore"

Personalized Fall Risk Reduction and Fall Prevention

Fall proofing ME: What Can I Do?

The media is awash with stories about older adults falling and hurting themselves, and these reports usually mention that one in three of those over 65 will fall each year. This article is about what you can do to make falls less likely.

Read: "Fall proofing ME: What Can I Do?"

Am I at Risk for Falls?

How do I determine my personal degree of "risk for falls"? Should I worry about falls at all? Do I need to use a cane or a walker? How would I know? We all face these questions as we age.

Read: "Am I at Risk for Falls?"

Featured Research

Medical Alert Systems: Help

Choose the Right Medical Alert System for YOU

Useful Apps Club

Unlock the potential of your smartphone or tablet to improve your life. The Useful Apps Club is for older adults and Boomers who have a smartphone or tablet (or are thinking of getting one) and need help to turn it into a useful tool. We are focused on finding Apps that can change your life, and teaching you how to use them.

View: The Useful Apps Club

Reduce Fall Risk

Read the "best of the web" on: Avoiding Falling. Our team of clinicians and citizen analysts has scoured the web for the best available answers to a set of questions designed to help you make falling less likely, and make the consequences if you do fall less bad.

View: Avoid the Perils of Falling

Avoid Social Isolation & Loneliness

isolation and loneliness Our community is exploring ways to avoid becoming isolated and lonely as we grow older. See what we are discovering — including one group of older adult's "recipe" for overcoming loneliness.

View: Isolation & Loneliness Hub

Medication Management Tools

medication management tools Poor medication management is one of the key reasons people are forced to stop living independently. There are a wide range of tools that can help you manage your medications — and avoid, or at least postpone, that fate. We have researched which products work best for different types of people, ranging from simple inexpensive pill boxes and reminders to complex "automated" pill dispensers.

View: Medication Management Hub

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Research, Expert Opinions, Explorations (All: p5)

Alzheimer's Thermostat Design: Jeeves vs. Nurse Ratched

The Top Modifiable Risk Factors for Alzheimer's