Cooperative health care allows different types of medical visits to occur in a single appointment and reduces both the time it takes to visit doctors and the costs of doing so. Supporters of this new practice hope that the ability to visit different types of doctors in a single visit might increase the likelihood that some adults will take advantage of otherwise unused kinds of care, such as mental health care. [read more...]

One possible explanation for the observed association between risk of fracture and depressive symptoms is the finding in some studies that depression is associated with lower bone mineral density (BMD). However, there is limited prospective data (that is, data collected over time) regarding an association between depressive symptoms and rate of change in BMD. [read more...]

Two studies have looked at older adults’ life satisfaction and depressed mood as indicators of psychological well-being. [read more...]

In a great deal of research a link was found between lead and declined cognitive function in children as well as adults who are exposed to it in work settings. Limited research however, has looked at this association – lead exposure and cognitive impairment – with an adult population in a non-occupational setting and for changes in cognitive performance over time. Doing so was the goal of this study. [read more...]

Although there has been much research examining play, it nevertheless seems that play is hard to define, especially for people beyond childhood. In fact, there has been only a little research concerning adult play, particularly among older women. [read more...]

Older adults view more television than younger people do. Eighty-nine percent of older adults watch television daily and 64% of these individuals watch over 3 hours a day. Do older adults use television viewing as a way to cope with depression or to find out if they are depressed? This study suggests that some people do just that. [read more...]

The researchers explored this issue - challenging behavior in older adults with intellectual disabilities – because of its importance to staff welfare and the need to provide the best care for these individuals. The authors particularly wanted to study the intra-individual change in staff-averse challenging behavior among older adults with intellectual disabilities. [read more...]

Research in this section suggests that reducing disability may reduce depression, and that reducing depression is also a place to start in reducing older adults’ reports of poor health. Other research in this section suggests that counseling is often as effective as medication in reducing depression and that changing men’s and African-American’s attitudes about seeking mental health help is important. [read more...]

Is it more beneficial to one’s mental health to retire or continue working? There is evidence that working is good for older adults’ mental health. [read more...]

This study examined “health-engagement control strategies” (HECS) which is a measure of how actively one engages in countering physical health problems. [read more...]