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Are Seniors Happy With Senior Assisted Living?
Case Studies and Research Results About Senior Assisted Living - FYI
University Study of Senior Living Shows Benefits of Active Senior Living
Seniors who exercise regularly can experience increased thinking ability, a rent study conducted at the University of Illiniois showed. Participants in the study gradually increased their workouts over three months to 45 minutes of walking, three times per week, yielding an 11 percent improvement in a variety of tests. The study focused on tasks such as driving, which require focused attention with competing distractions. Mental activity was measured with magnetic resonance imaging technology. The report, published in the online edition of Proceeding of the National Academy, can be found at www.pnas.org.
Study of Senior Living Habits Shows Dangers of Smoking
Cigarettes may increase the speed of cognitive decline in the elderly, according to a study published in Neurology.
Tomorrows Senior "Vision of the Idea Retirement'
American Express Financial Advisors , Inc. conducted a survey of 1,393 affluent boomers (those with income of $75k or more) in 2005 to see what boomers see as their "Vision of the Ideal Retirement" might be.
Most of their parents quit working at retirement age, but this groups plans to keep working, not because they have a financial need, but because they want to stay involved. Another interesting finding was nine of ten of those surveyed envision retirement as a time for learning and self discovery
New Study Looks At: Senior Assisted Living Residents – Are They Happy?
Several new studies try to answer that question. A team of researchers at Ithaca College and Cornell University has been following the moves of 1,200 seniors in central New York's Tompkins County since 1995. The seniors have been interviewed at different times about their housing, health, support networks and satisfaction with life. Seniors from different living situations were compared, according one of the study's authors John A. Krout. "Housing is such an important aspect of the individual person's quality of life," said Krout, professor and director of the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute, Ithaca, N.Y. "The wrong kind of housing for someone can be a disaster."
The thought of moving to a seniors-only building doesn't sit well with some people. They may not want to live with only older people. Others see an age-restricted building, even one for independent seniors, as the last stop before the nursing home.
Unlike the stereotype of the shut-away senior who never sees family members, residents of seniors-only buildings spend as much time with their family and friends as seniors who live at home. "We didn't find anything to suggest that people who move become recluses," Wylde said. And just as the New York study showed, there was no widespread dissatisfaction with seniors-only projects. Researcher Wylde said: "We are not finding that people are unhappy in these buildings."
Taken from a report by Jane Adler a Chicago-area freelance writer
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