Aging/Older Adults

This issue brief summarizes the current evidence surrounding the effects of Medicaid expansion on coverage, access, affordability, health outcomes, and economic indicators. The paper draws primarily from evidence examined in 202 studies reviewed in a previous KFF literature review on this subject.

This report analyzes data on food insecurity among older adults ages 60 and over. It illustrates that while the food-insecurity rate for this population has recently declined, it is still significantly higher than a decade ago. This report also highlights sub-segments of this population who are at particularly high risk of experiencing food insecurity, including older adults with disabilities and older adults who are racial or ethnic minorities.

This report expands upon the already established fact that falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths among people 65 years and over. It reports on the increasing rate of deaths from falls, noting that they increased 31% from 2007 to 2016. In people aged 85 and over, this rate increased 3.9% per year. This report emphasizes the need for providers to take actionable steps towards reducing falls, including through targeted interventions such as prescribing balance exercises.

This report looks at methods of calculating the costs associated with falls in older adults. It presents two methods to calculate these costs: partial attributable fraction, which focuses on the details of payer type, and count applied to cost, which utilizes states’ own counts to assess lifetime costs. The goal of this report is to encourage states to use effective cost calculation to plan more targeted preventive measures going forward.

This paper from AARP’s Public Policy Institute discusses the potential implications of the expanded use of telehealth from the lens of older adults and family caregivers. It discusses the hope that telehealth may help address rising healthcare costs, enable older adults to stay in their homes longer, and relieve pressure for family caregivers. It also emphasizes the importance of keeping older adults and their families at the center of telehealth expansion efforts and continuing research.

This whitepaper focuses on the potential of technology to improve mobility for older adults living in rural settings. It discusses ways technology may help to advance transit for this population, including by reducing gaps in transit services, improving access to information, and bolstering safety and accessibility for those who drive. The paper concludes with a list of twelve considerations for industry and philanthropy professionals working to advance rural transit for older adults.

This report is the first in a series of three total Year 1 reports from NAMRS. It provides a general overview of the operating procedures of state Adult Protective Services agencies. While this report focuses on the hard data provided by states, future reports will discuss the narrative data also submitted by states. NAMRS has also released a background report summarizing the purpose and process of their national data collection system, as well as reference appendices A-C.

The Profile of Older Americans compiles data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to create a statistical summary of older Americans. The Profile focuses specifically on the population aged 65 and older and looks at changing demographics across individual categories, including population, income and poverty, living arrangements, education, health, and caregiving.

This recently released follow-up report was aimed at studying changes in the second year after individuals transitioned out of institutional care into community settings. Participants in the MFP program had higher costs during the first twelve months than non-MFP participants who also transitioned to community-based care. However, this study showed that these costs became comparable after the first year of transition.

As part of Mathematica’s ongoing evaluation project of section 1115 demonstrations, they have released their interim findings on the DSRIP program. This report shows quantitative evidence of DSRIP motivating positive provider actions, but the program’s impact on outcomes is still unclear. Mathematica aims to release a final report on the effectiveness of DSRIP in 2019.