| Livability by Neighborhood – Deprescribing – Depression & Rurality |
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| Policy Plus Action | The AARP Public Policy Institute Newsletter |
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The AARP Livability Index, newly updated for 2022, is now helping REALTORS® navigate what makes a neighborhood livable throughout a lifetime. This online, interactive tool scores neighborhoods across the United States in seven data-driven categories: housing, transportation, neighborhood, health, environment, engagement, and opportunity. Now comes the integration of the index into the Realtors Property Resource®
website and mobile app, putting it into the hands of thousands of real estate agents. In sharing this critical neighborhood livability information with home buyers, REALTORS® are helping homebuyers consider how a home and community will meet their needs now and as they age.
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The drug industry often argues that drug research and development will slow if it cannot continue its current pricing practices. AARP’s Public Police Institute compared total Medicare Part D spending on top brand-name drugs to the pharmaceutical industry’s estimate that it costs $2.6 billion to develop a new drug, which includes the costs associated with drugs that fail to reach the market. The analysis found that, based on Medicare Part D spending alone, top brand-name drugs often recouped the average cost to develop a new drug many times over between 2016 and 2020.
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The federal COVID-19 response did not prioritize home and community-based services (HCBS), revealing clear areas for system improvements. As with nursing homes, problems with HCBS were present long before the pandemic, including a critically short-staffed and underpaid workforce. A new journal article in Generations
from AARP Public Policy Institute authors examines the pandemic’s impact on HCBS and offers solutions. Some of the identified areas involve timely CDC guidance, provision of personal protective equipment, federal emergency funding, vaccinations, data collection, and availability. Today some changes have been implemented, with most HCBS providers open and serving older adults and people with disabilities, often with new safety protocols to minimize COVID-19 risk.
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The process of “deprescribing”—that is, reducing or eliminating certain drugs that may be causing a person harm—is part of good prescribing practice. Consumers can also be involved by initiating the process with a provider and recognizing that medication regimens require monitoring to ensure they work. Given that adults ages 65 and older on average take 4.6 medications per month and 18 percent use 10 or more drugs per month, the deprescribing process should become a part of routine care.
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Older adults living in rural areas have higher rates of depression than their urban counterparts. While white older adults reported overall higher rates of depression than their Black and Hispanic counterparts, the difference between rural and urban Black older adults was the most pronounced. These disparities are deeply rooted in a range of social, economic, geographic, and other factors and are not surprising given the higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and stroke in rural areas.
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With the internet being more important than ever to all aspects of everyday life from health care to employment, the newly updated AARP Livability Index now captures high-speed access as a key component of a community’s livability. In incorporating this trait within its engagement category, the Index measures the presence and quality of broadband service in a community and documents a clear visualization of the digital divide and related inequality. Community members can use the Index to evaluate their own regions to help encourage change.
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Weekly COVID cases and deaths have begun accelerating in nursing homes, indicating the beginning of a new wave. The uptick follows a record-low in the four-week death toll. Rates of COVID-19 deaths and cases in nursing homes declined during the four-week period ended April 17, but even within the decline, the rate of cases rose steadily each week. Additionally, in the two weeks following April 17, cases climbed with more reported than during the four weeks ended April 17. As evidence points to a new wave, more than one million nursing home staff and over 350,000 residents have not been boosted, leaving nursing homes vulnerable.
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In celebrating National Nurses Week earlier this month, the Center to Champion Nursing in America
(CCNA)—an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—reflects on how nurses have promoted health equity and well-being, and played a vital role in supporting AARP’s mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. One important development during the last several years is improved access to primary care enabled by removal of barriers that prevent nurse practitioners from providing care to the full extent of their education and training. Another impactful advance: more nurses serving on advisory, non-profit, private, and public corporate boards to positively impact Americans’ health.
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Editor-in-Chief: Susan C. Reinhard, RN, PhD, FAAN
Senior Writer/Editor: Carl Levesque |
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