You may have noticed the buzz on social media that we have teamed up with the 14th International Conference on Frailty & Sarcopenia Research to call your attention to frailty highlights you don’t want to miss at their annual meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from March 20-22.
For “Pride Month,” we wanted to focus on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ older adults’ heart health as a possible risk consideration for frailty. There is increasing recognition of a multitude of health inequities that exist across many areas of wellness for LGBTQ+ people throughout the lifespan. In addition to age-related changes in cardiovascular risk, older LGBTQ+ adults are at high risk for poor heart health outcomes related to LGBTQ+ specific life stressors and psychosocial, behavioral, and physiologic factors. Further considerations include increased prevalence of diabetes, tobacco abuse, and the use of hormonal therapies in transgender individuals. Stemming from their lived experiences, or perceived and actual discrimination from present day physicians, many LGBTQ+ older adults mistrust health care providers; consequently, delaying doctor visits may lead to an LGBTQ+ patient being diagnosed when they present with overt clinical disease rather than an early disease stage, where institution of preventative measures may impact patient care.
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We are bringing back our celebrated #FrailtyFighter social media campaign on Twitter! And we are proud to partner with the International Conference on Frailty and Sarcopenia Research (ICFSR) Congress to highlight global researchers in this space leading up to the ICFSR 2023 Conference in Toulouse, France, from March 22-24 as a key part of this effort. Continue Reading
Recently, I asked Dr. Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen, Professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work and Director of the Goldsen Institute, to share her thoughts about frailty in older LGBTQ+ adults. Dr. Fredriksen-Goldsen is a pioneer in research on LGBTQ+ aging. She led the nation’s first federally-funded longitudinal study of the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ people over the age of 50, “Aging with Pride: National Health, Aging, and Sexuality/Gender Study.” When I brought up the topic of frailty-specific insights in this population, Dr. Fredriksen-Goldsen noted that frailty was a significant problem for LGBTQ+ older adults: Continue Reading
Exciting news! Our website has a new clinical section on Pulmonary Function and Frailty. As the field of Frailty Science is relatively young, research in specific specialties may be scarce—and this is true of the associations between the respiratory system and frailty. Consequently, we asked one of Johns Hopkins’ top experts in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine to review literature in this space, and compose this new section; we are grateful to Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, an Assistant Professor in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, for taking up this challenge.
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Dr. Jeremy Walston and Dr. Karen Bandeen-Roche, Frailty Science’s co-PIs, are participating in a novel Frailty Seminar Series along with other influential aging and frailty researchers from around the world over the coming several months. The highly-informative Frailty Seminar Series is an 11-month program aimed at promoting scientific exchanging and sharing evidence-based practices and research advances about all aspects of frailty around the globe. Continue Reading
As you may have noticed, our website has a fabulous new look and feel, as well as several new, interesting features! Continue Reading
It should come as no surprise that observing the holidays will be different this year. Here we outline important considerations about holiday gatherings during COVID-19 times, with special consideration to the health of older and more vulnerable relatives and friends. Continue Reading
Everyone in our clinician and researcher community is invited to share vote-by-mail information with their patients and families. This blog offers a summary of ways to help older people get out their votes as safely as possible in 2020, and it provides a voter’s personal experience on the ease of using a vote-by-mail ballot at a community-based official election ballot drop box. Continue Reading