Doctors already test seniors’ hearing and vision. Sense of smell could be added to screenings one day, according to researchers who found links between its loss and risk of frailty in older adults. “We use our sense of smell to identify the threat of a fire or to enjoy the fragrance of flowers on a spring day. But just like vision and hearing, this sense weakens as we age,” said study co-author Dr. Nicholas Rowan. He is an associate professor of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at Johns Hopkins Medicine, in Baltimore. “We found that both impaired olfactory identification and sensitivity functions are associated with frailty, which is interesting because it shows that it’s not just your aging brain at work here, but it may also be something peripheral, like something at the level of your nose that is able to predict our impending frailty and death,” Rowan added in a Hopkins news release. For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 1,160 older adults enrolled in the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project between 2015 and 2016. Participants, average age 76, were exposed to five scents to measure olfactory identification and six scents to measure sensitivity levels. Olfactory sensitivity is the ability to detect an odor’s presence. Olfactory identification is the ability to detect and name an odor. The latter relies on higher-order brain…  read on >  read on >

Worries that clergy will urge depressed congregants to rely on prayer and not other mental health care appear to be unfounded. A nationwide survey found that 90% of clergy members embraced a medical understanding of the causes and treatment of depression. About 10% said they would recommend using religious means alone to address depression. “We consider this good news,” said study co-author Mark Chaves, a professor of sociology, religious studies and divinity at Duke University in Durham, N.C. “We’ve known for a while that a lot of people bring their mental health challenges to clergy,” he said in a university news release. “There’s been concern about what clergy have been telling them. Have they been telling them just to pray, or to see a doctor? This should allay concerns.” Clergy can often be the first point of contact for a person with depression, the study authors noted. The survey results largely held true across denominations, said study co-author Anna Holleman, a postdoctoral research associate. “We couldn’t find any subset of clergy in which anything but a small minority rejected medical wisdom,” she said. For the study, the researchers used data from Duke’s National Survey of Religious Leaders, which includes U.S. clergy across the religious spectrum. The survey was conducted in 2019 and 2020, largely before the COVID-19 pandemic. It drew responses from about 1,600 congregational…  read on >  read on >

Social isolation is a substantial risk factor for dementia in older adults, according to a pair of studies that add evidence to past research on this threat. But these new studies offer a potential solution: using technology to encourage older adults to text and email to stay in touch. Although the studies don’t prove lack of regular social contact causes dementia, researchers said they do strengthen observations that isolation increases the risk. They suggested that relatively simple steps to increase social support may reduce that risk. About 1 in 4 people over age 65 in the United States is socially isolated. “Social connections matter for our cognitive health, and it is potentially easily modifiable for older adults without the use of medication,” said Dr. Thomas Cudjoe, senior author of both studies. He’s an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. The first study used data collected on more than 5,000 Medicare beneficiaries for a long-term study of health and aging trends that began in 2011. Participants were asked to complete an annual two-hour, in-person interview to assess their mental functioning, health status and overall well-being. About 23% reported social isolation at the start. They showed no signs of dementia. After nine years, 21% of participants had developed dementia. And the risk was 27% higher among socially isolated older adults,…  read on >  read on >

Cancer deaths continue to decline, dropping 33% since 1991 and saving an estimated 3.8 million lives, according to the American Cancer Society’s annual statistics report. But individual trends within that overall success story highlight the struggle to find the best ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer for all Americans, the society said. On the positive side, the United States saw an “astounding” 65% reduction in cervical cancer rates among 20- to 24-year-old women between 2012 and 2019, a direct result of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society (ACS). “The effort that our children went through over the last 20 years or so to go through vaccinations have actually saved lives,” Dahut said, noting that the plummeting case level “totally follows the time when HPV vaccines were produced.” Chief executive officer Karen Knudsen added that “this is some of the first real-world evidence that HPV vaccination is likely to be effective in reducing cancer incidence and [death rates].” Unfortunately, rates of advanced prostate cancers are on the rise, likely driven by confusion and conflict over screening guidelines, ACS officials said. The second-leading cause of cancer death for U.S. men, prostate cancer cases rose 3% a year from 2014 through 2019 after two decades of decline, the report found. There’s also been a 5% year-over-year increase…  read on >  read on >