The New Old Age

Researchers are only beginning to understand why some people embrace retirement while others won’t even consider it.

By Paula Span

Many Americans plan to donate their organs for transplants or their bodies for medical science. Few realize that there’s a growing need for their brains, too.

By Paula Span

Arguments, verbal abuse and aggression are not unusual in elder care settings. Better staffing and training can ease the tensions, experts say.

By Paula Span

Medicare Advantage plans say it reduces waste and inappropriate care. Critics say it often restricts coverage unnecessarily.

By Paula Span

Trained negotiators can help families struggling with vexing elder-care issues.

By Paula Span

Homeownership is not the boon to older Americans that it once was.

By Paula Span

The pandemic played a role in increased consumption, but alcohol use among people 65 and older was climbing even before 2020.

By Paula Span

Federal law requires states to seek reimbursement from the assets, usually homes, of people who died after receiving benefits for long-term care.

By Paula Span

New criteria could lead to a diagnosis on the basis of a simple blood test, even in the absence of obvious symptoms.

By Paula Span

A society in which members of different generations do not interact “is a dangerous experiment,” said one researcher.

By Paula Span

The move to a long-term care facility is often difficult but necessary for frail patients. For their partners, it can mean a new set of challenges.

By Paula Span

Coronary artery bypass grafting, the most common cardiac procedure in the United States, was studied mostly in men. Women are paying the price.

By Paula Span

Americans in the lower middle class are losing ground financially, researchers have found.

By Paula Span

Winston, an older silverback, is getting enviable medical treatment. Now his keepers must confront an issue that vexes doctors and older humans, too: How much intervention is too much?

By Paula Span

The virus sends up to 160,000 people over 65 to hospitals every year. But just 15 percent have gotten the newly available shots.

By Paula Span

Some seniors prefer age-restricted communities, while others want intergenerational living. There is little research to show which option is healthier.

By Paula Span

Mentoring programs bring together those just starting to care for family members with dementia and those who have been coping for some time.

By Paula Span

Over-the-counter devices have been available for a year now. New research suggests they may have unexpected benefits.

By Paula Span

Benefits extended earlier in the coronavirus pandemic have been rolled back. But many older Americans are not taking advantage of the aid still available.

By Paula Span

The plaintiffs want the state to drop its residency requirement. Oregon and Vermont have already done so.

By Paula Span

Older people are less likely to be diagnosed but more likely to experience certain kinds of illnesses, research suggests.

By Paula Span

A series of hurdles prevented the facilities from shielding older people, despite the best efforts of staff. Experts are calling for reforms before the next virus arrives.

By Paula Span

As climate change sends summer temperatures soaring, older people are increasingly vulnerable to heat-related illnesses in places like Phoenix.

By Paula Span

Life expectancy increasingly figures into calculations about whether screenings and treatments are appropriate. Here’s how to find out yours.

By Paula Span

Many aging baby boomers have long histories with drugs, cannabis and alcohol. “The field wasn’t ready for that,” said one expert.

By Paula Span

Nearly three-quarters of hospice organizations are now for-profit. Complaints of fraud and profiteering are growing.

By Paula Span

Senior move managers may spend weeks or months helping seniors and their families sort through belongings, pack and move into a new home.

By Paula Span

Most have low-risk cancers and rarely benefit from treatment, a new study finds. Actively monitoring the condition is often the best choice.

By Paula Span

The people at the dog park, the bank teller, the regular waiter — these casual relationships may be “weak ties,” but they’re also a key to well-being.

By Paula Span

Despite solid financial track records, many older Americans have a hard time refinancing because of their mortality risks and lower retirement incomes.

By Paula Span

Following even basic screenings and operations, patients often must arrange for someone to deliver them home. For older people, it can be a tall order.

By Paula Span

Most older cancer patients received invasive care in the last month of their lives, a new study finds. That may not be what they wanted.

By Paula Span

Anxiety disorders are common among seniors, but an influential panel seems likely to recommend against routine screening. Some experts disagree.

By Paula Span

Seniors are increasingly left to protect themselves as the rest of the country abandons precautions: “Americans do not agree about the duty to protect others.”

By Paula Span

“Granny flats” are popping up in backyards across the country, affording Americans a new housing option. Some communities are not happy about it.

By Paula Span

Reforms embedded in the Inflation Reduction Act will bring savings to seniors this year. Already some lawmakers are aiming to repeal the changes.

By Paula Span

Women over 65 are being screened for cervical cancer in diminishing numbers. But some are reluctant to give up the tests.

By Paula Span

Nearly one million Americans have no immediate family members to provide assistance if needed. The number is expected to grow.

By Paula Span

Hospital-at-home care is an increasingly common option, and it is often a safer one for older adults. But the future of the approach depends on federal action.

By Paula Span

It’s annual enrollment season once again. Here’s a look at the pros and cons of the two approaches to health insurance.

By Paula Span

Americans over 65 remain the demographic most likely to have received the original series of vaccinations. But fewer are getting the follow-up shots, surveys indicate.

By Paula Span

Over-the-counter hearing aids are coming at long last. But lower prices and greater accessibility may take time to materialize.

By Paula Span

In the blizzard of paperwork needed to get into a nursing home or assisted living, some residents unwittingly surrender the right to a day in court.

By Paula Span

Many employees reduce their hours or stop working to help ailing family members. But it may be years before they fully return to the work force, studies indicate.

By Paula Span

Rituals like graduations and weddings are few and far between for older adults. Some are finding ways to honor their momentous occasions.

By Paula Span

Studies found that centers provided incomplete or unbalanced information, which could lead to unnecessary screenings and health complications in older adults.

By Paula Span

As experimental drugs prove ineffective against increasing dementia cases in the U.S., researchers argue that improving eyesight can have an effect.

By Paula Span

Research shows that debt has risen among older people, and those who owe are more likely to have multiple diagnosed illnesses.

By Paula Span

Millions of Americans take aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke. Now, doctors are advising against it — especially for people over 70.

By Paula Span

A new training tool helps to assess whether some seniors can make informed choices about their own care and well-being.

By Paula Span

Through more than three decades of research, the Yale psychologist Becca Levy has demonstrated that age discrimination can take years off one’s life.

By Paula Span

Two neurologists argue that calling T.I.A.s what they are — minor strokes — could prompt patients to seek the help they need more quickly.

By Paula Span

Health care researchers argue that hospice facilities could better serve some terminal patients, and ease the burden on exhausted loved ones.

By Paula Span

The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, funded by Medicare and Medicaid, has quietly succeeded in enabling some older Americans to age in place.

By Paula Span

Three recent developments — incremental and undramatic but encouraging — are likely to improve the lives and health of seniors.

By Paula Span

Health experts are concerned that the pandemic, in upending daily routines, has reduced mobility and physical conditioning in older adults.

By Paula Span

Challenging a policy that limited survivor’s benefits to married couples, even though some couples were legally barred from marriage, took years.

By Paula Span

With Covid surging again and vaccine fatigue rising, vaccination rates for influenza are troublingly low, especially among older Americans.

By Paula Span

In a troubling picture, American women are looking at a rockier road to secure retirement than their male counterparts.

By Paula Span

Medicare has extended coverage of remote health care. While telehealth removed barriers to care for many during the pandemic, some say there is more to be done.

By Paula Span

The federal government recently lifted most visitation restrictions at nursing homes. But concerns linger that a full reopening could leave residents vulnerable to another coronavirus surge.

By Paula Span

Complex restrictions are preventing patients from accessing medical aid in dying, even in states where it is allowed. New legal and legislative efforts are pushing to change that.

By Paula Span

Most Medicare beneficiaries don’t compare plans during open enrollment season, and may be paying more, or accepting more restrictions, than they should.

By Paula Span

“It causes huge distress to tell a family, ‘We can’t serve you,’” said one state hospice organization director.

By Paula Span

Researchers have been studying how much care American adults will require as they age, and for how long.

By Paula Span

The older cohort had a head start on getting immunized against Covid-19, but too many remain unprotected, experts say.

By Paula Span

The pathologies underlying brain decline can begin years before symptoms emerge. Can everyday behavior provide warning?

By Paula Span

With infections increasing once more, and hospitalization rising among older adults, health experts offer a timely warning: a coronavirus infection can look different in older patients.

By Paula Span

Staffing shortages have long plagued the home care industry. But the pandemic has intensified the problem.

By Paula Span

The approval of Aduhelm to treat Alzheimer’s disease has raised hope among older adults, but many doctors wonder if it is warranted.

By Paula Span