Veterinary care and flea preventatives are limited in homeless shelters and outreach organizations serving people experiencing homelessness.

Objective: Pet ownership among people experiencing homelessness (PEH) is common, but access to shelter, veterinary care, and flea-preventative products for PEH who own pets in the US is not well described. We sought to evaluate current knowledge of fleas and flea-borne diseases and characterize practices around pets and service animals among staff at homeless shelters and outreach organizations.

Methods: In-person surveys were administered to staff at homeless shelters and on outreach teams in 7 states from August 2022 to April 2023 to evaluate knowledge, attitudes, and practices and to assess homeless shelter/organizational characteristics.

Predictive Utility of Four Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Assessments and Cognitive Status Changes Among Cognitively In-Tact Older Adults.

Purpose: To examine the factor structure and predictive utility of four instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) measures to identify cognitive status changes among older adults enrolled in the ACTIVE Trial.

Major Findings: Extracted factors represented IADL instruments. Baseline performance on the Everyday Problems Test (EPT) predicted 5-year MMSE scores (est.

Differential Longitudinal Associations Between Depressive Symptoms and Cognitive Status by Living Situation in Older Adults.

This study explores whether living situation modifies longitudinal associations between depressive symptoms and changes in cognitive status across ten years in generally healthy, community-dwelling older adults. Participants ( = 687, = 73.92 years) from the no-contact control condition of a multisite longitudinal study completed the Mini-Mental State Examination, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale, and self-reported living situation.

Food resources and kitchen skills plus aerobic training (FoRKS+) for black adults with hypertension: A pilot trial protocol.

Background: Midlife hypertension is associated with cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD), suggesting that blood pressure control may be a therapeutic target for dementia prevention. Given excess hypertension in non-Hispanic Black (NHB) adults, blood pressure control may also reduce ADRD disparities. We describe a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a multicomponent lifestyle-based intervention versus enhanced usual care on cognition among middle-aged NHB adults.

Design and baseline characteristics of the Cognitive and Aerobic Resilience for the Brain (CARB) study.

Background: Treatments that delay progression of cognitive impairment in older adults are of great public health significance. This manuscript outlines the protocol, recruitment, baseline characteristics, and retention for a randomized controlled trial of cognitive and aerobic physical training to improve cognition in individuals with subjective cognitive dysfunction, the "Cognitive and Aerobic Resilience for the Brain" (CARB) study.

Methods: Community-dwelling, older adults with self-reported memory loss were randomly assigned to receive either computer-based cognitive training, aerobic physical training, combined cognitive and physical training, or education control.

Does Cognitive Training Reduce Falls across Ten Years?: Data from the ACTIVE Trial.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cognitive training on the risk of experiencing a fall across 10 years. The study used data from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) randomized controlled trial. Older adults aged 65-94 were randomly assigned to speed of processing, memory, or reasoning training or to a no-contact control group ( = 2802).

Correlates of Gait Speed Among Older Adults From 6 Countries: Findings From the COSMIC Collaboration.

Background: Few studies have compared gait speed and its correlates among different ethnogeographic regions. The goals of this study were to describe usual and rapid gait speed, and identify their correlates across Australian, Asian, and African countries.

Methods: We used data from 6 population-based cohorts of adults aged 65+ from 6 countries and 3 continents (N = 6 472), with samples ranging from 231 to 1 913.

Does the association between objective and subjective memory vary by age among healthy older adults?

Subjective memory is commonly used as an indicator of older adults' objective memory in clinical screening; however, the correspondence between subjective and objective memory across different ages is unclear. The current study examined age-varying associations between subjective and objective memory in a cross-sectional sample of healthy older adults from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study ( 2,496). Time varying effects modeling (TVEM) models the association between variables as a function of time-varying metrics including age without imposing linear assumptions.

Longitudinal associations of pain and cognitive decline in community-dwelling older adults.

Pain is inversely associated with cognitive function in older adults, but the effects of pain on cognitive decline are not fully clear. This study examined the associations of baseline pain, pain persistence, and incident pain with changes in cognition across 10 years in a sample of healthy community-dwelling older adults ( = 688; = 74, = 6.05) from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) trial.

Feasibility and Enjoyment of Exercise Video Games in Older Adults.

Several interventions have been developed to enhance social connectedness among older adults. However, little research has demonstrated their performance in a social distancing environment. Exergames are not only beneficial to older adults' physical and cognitive health, but they also allow players to interact with each other at a distance, which can reduce loneliness and increase social connection.

Age- and Time-Varying Associations Between Subjective Health and Episodic Memory in Older Adults.

Objectives: There are positive correlations between subjective health reports and episodic memory performance in older adults. However, previous studies have not evaluated the scope of such complex relationships, nor the potentially nonlinear magnitude of these correlations across age and time. We employed multiple subjective heath indices to evaluate the scope and nonlinearity of such relationships with memory performance.

Declining energy predicts incident mobility disability and mortality risk in healthy older adults.

Background: The purpose was to examine whether longitudinal changes in self-reported energy predict incident mobility disability and mortality. We further explored whether changes in energy-related behaviors (physical activity, appetite, or sleep quality) would explain these associations.

Methods: N = 2021 participants from the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study free from mobility disability and with at least three energy assessments from years 2 to 10.

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) polymorphism predicts rapid gait speed changes in healthy older adults.

Importance: Adapting one's gait speed to external circumstances is critical for safe ambulation. Dopamine (DA), critical for adapting to increased task demands, predicts usual gait speed and may exert a greater role in complex tasks like rapid gait speed.

Objective: We hypothesized that a genotypic proxy indicator of greater prefrontal DA signaling would predict significantly faster rapid gait.

Functional correlates of self-reported energy levels in the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study.

Background: Effects of fatigue on health in older age are well studied, yet little is known about the clinical relevance of energy perception.

Aims: To explore cross-sectional associations of self-reported energy with physical and mental health metrics in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study.

Methods: Participants rated their energy from 0 to 10; the outcome was energy dichotomized at the median (≥ 7 = higher energy).

The impact of region and urbanicity on the discrimination-cognitive health link among older Blacks.

Little research has examined how the link between discrimination and cognitive health varies by where people live. This study investigates how living in non-urban versus urban areas in different regions in the United States moderates the discrimination-cognitive health link among older non-Hispanic Blacks. Data are from the 2012 and 2014 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; N=2,347).

Cognitive Training Attenuates Decline in Physical Function Across 10 Years.

Objectives: Poor physical function is associated with negative health and cognitive outcomes. Although nine studies demonstrated that cognitive training reduces age-related declines in physical function, only one study has examined the effects beyond immediate posttest changes. The first aim of this study was to assess the impact of three cognitive training programs on physical function measures across 10 years and the second aim was to examine whether baseline cognitive self-efficacy or depressive symptoms moderated training effects.

A viewpoint on change point modeling for cognitive aging research: Moving from description to intervention and practice.

Chronological age is a commonly-used time metric, but there may be more relevant time measures in older adulthood. This paper reviews change point modeling, a type of analysis increasingly common in cognitive aging research but with limited application in applied research. Here, we propose a new application of such models for cognitive training studies.

A Novel Hierarchical LATER Process Model: Evaluating Latent Sources of Variation in Reaction Times of Adult Daily Smokers.

Reaction time data from cognitive tasks continue to be a key way to assess decision-making in various contexts to better understand addiction. The goal of this paper is twofold: to introduce a nuanced modeling approach for reaction time data and to demonstrate the novel insights it can provide into the decision processes of nicotine-dependent individuals in different contexts. We focus on the Linear Approach to Threshold with Ergodic Rate (LATER) model, which is a cognitive process model that describes reaction time data in terms of two distinct aspects of cognitive functioning: speed of information accumulation ("accretion") and threshold amount of information needed prior to execution ("caution").

The impact of behavioral interventions on cognitive function in healthy older adults: A systematic review.

Behavioral interventions to improve cognitive function in older adults are widespread and can vary from theater classes to cognitive training programs. However, the effectiveness in maintaining different cognitive domains varies greatly both across and within intervention types. To date, no systematic reviews have synthesized findings across more than a few types of interventions (e.

Age-Varying Relationships Between Physical Function and Cognition in Older Adulthood.

Objectives: There are positive relationships between physical and cognitive function in older adulthood; however, the strength of these relationships are inconsistent across studies. Although novel statistical tools provide flexibility to explore age-related differences in relationship magnitude, such methods have not been implemented in gerontological research. This study applied such methods to examine variations in relationship magnitude between physical function and cognition in healthy older adults (N = 2,783).

The Impact of Three Cognitive Training Interventions on Older Adults' Physical Functioning Across 5 Years.

Objective: Physical functioning is closely associated with cognition. The current study assessed the impact of three cognitive training programs on objective measures of physical functioning across 5 years.

Method: Older adults randomized to a processing speed ( n = 702), reasoning ( n = 694), or memory ( n = 703) training intervention were compared with those randomized to a no-contact control condition ( n = 698).

Longitudinal Associations Between Changes in Physical Function and Driving Mobility Behaviors of Older Adults.

Objectives: To examine time-varying correlations between multiple indices of physical function and driving mobility in older adults across five years.

Design: Longitudinal.

Participants: Older drivers aged 65-91 = 73.