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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted older Black Americans. Given that assistance networks play a crucial role in older adults' ability to respond to challenges, we sought to investigate whether older adults' assistance network size changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and differed by race.
Methods: We analyzed data from the 2018-2020 rounds of the U.S. National Health and Aging Trends Study for Black and White adults aged 70 and older receiving help in the community or residential care settings. We used ordinary least squares regression to compare changes in assistance network size in the 2 years pre-COVID-19 (2018-2019, N = 3438) to changes in size at the onset of COVID-19 (2019-2020, N = 3185).
Results: Black older adults had larger assistance networks with a greater number of family helpers before and during the pandemic compared to their White counterparts. Assistance network size for older adults increased before but not during the pandemic mostly due to declines in unpaid nonrelative helpers and lack of increase in paid helpers. These effects did not differ by race.
Conclusions: Black and White older adults experienced similarly sized reductions in their assistance networks as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research should investigate the relationship between these network changes and the unmet needs of older adults.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jgs.18547 | DOI Listing |
J Magn Reson Imaging
September 2025
Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.
Background: Cerebrovascular reactivity reflects changes in cerebral blood flow in response to an acute stimulus and is reflective of the brain's ability to match blood flow to demand. Functional MRI with a breath-hold task can be used to elicit this vasoactive response, but data validity hinges on subject compliance. Determining breath-hold compliance often requires external monitoring equipment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHum Brain Mapp
September 2025
Department of Pediatrics, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Perinatal stroke is a vascular injury occurring early in life, often resulting in motor deficits (hemiplegic cerebral palsy/HCP). Comorbidities may also include poor neuropsychological outcomes, such as deficits in memory. Previous studies have used resting state functional MRI (fMRI) to demonstrate that functional connectivity (FC) within hippocampal circuits is associated with memory function in typically developing controls (TDC) and in adults after stroke, but this is unexplored in perinatal stroke.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn
September 2025
Department of Public Health, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Cognitive function is a critical health indicator of older adults in later life. However, previous research has paid less attention to the impact of pre-retirement work-related characteristics on cognitive functions, especially in Asia. Thus, this study aims to examine the relationship between work-related factors and cognitive functions of the retired population, using Taiwan as an example.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Geriatr Med Res
September 2025
Institute of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Background: Poor hand dexterity may increase the risk of functional disability; however, few studies have examined the relationship between hand dexterity and incident functional disability. The aim of this study was to prospectively investigate the dose-response association of hand dexterity with incident functional disability in community-dwelling older adults.
Methods: This study included 1,069 older adults aged ≥65 years in Kasama City, Japan.
Foot Ankle Int
September 2025
Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Keio University, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Background: Coronal wedge insoles are commonly prescribed to mitigate musculoskeletal disorders, yet their static-standing kinematic and kinetic effects on lower extremity joints remain insufficiently understood.
Methods: This cross-sectional experimental study included 15 healthy older adults (mean 64.9 ± 6.