Lonely cardiac patients at increased risk of death within year of hospital discharge

                                                                 

                 Science Daily -- Date:November 4, 2019 Source:BMJCardiac patients who feel lonely are at heightened risk of dying within a year of being discharged from hospital, reveals research published online in the journal Heart.

Loneliness should be prioritised in public health initiatives and regarded as a legitimate health risk in people who have a serious illness, conclude the researchers.

Previous research suggests that loneliness and poor social support are associated with a heightened risk of developing, and dying from, coronary artery disease.

But it's not clear if other types of heart disease might also be influenced by feelings of loneliness, and if living alone might be as influential as feeling lonely.

To explore this further, the researchers looked at the 1-year health outcomes of patients admitted to a specialist heart centre with either ischaemic (coronary) heart disease, abnormal heart rhythm, heart failure or valve disease, over the course of a year in 2013-14.

Most of them (70%) were men, and their average age was 66.

On discharge from the centre, 13,443 (53% of the total) completed validated questionnaires on their physical health, psychological wellbeing, and quality of life (Short Form 12; HeartQoL) and their levels of anxiety and depression (HADS).

They were also quizzed about health behaviours, including smoking, drinking, and how often they took their prescribed medicines. National data were used to find out if they lived alone or with other people.

Those who said they felt lonely were nearly three times as likely to be anxious and depressed and to report a significantly lower quality of life as those who said they didn't feel lonely.

One year later, the researchers checked national registry data to see what had happened to the patients' cardiac health, as well as how many of them had died.

They found that irrespective of the diagnosis, loneliness was associated with significantly poorer physical health after a year.

After taking account of potentially influential factors, including health behaviours, lonely women were nearly three times as likely to have died from any cause after a year as women who didn't feel lonely. Similarly, lonely men were more than twice as likely to have died from any cause.

The significant differences in risk between those who felt lonely and those who didn't, suggest that health related behaviours and underlying conditions can't fully explain the associations found, say the researchers.

Although living alone wasn't associated with feeling lonely, it was associated with a lower risk of anxiety/depression than in those who lived with other people.

And it was associated with a higher (39%) risk of poor cardiac health among men. Previous studies indicate that women have larger social networks than men, so separation, divorce, or the death of a partner may disadvantage men more, suggest the researchers, by way of an explanation for this particular finding.

This is an observational study, and as such, can't establish cause. Reverse causality may also be at play, as it's not clear whether the illness or the feelings of loneliness came first.

"However, the findings are in line with previous research, suggesting that loneliness is associated with changes in cardiovascular, neuroendocrine and immune function as well as unhealthy lifestyle choices which impact negative health outcomes," write the researchers.

There are indications that the burden of loneliness and social isolation is growing," they add.

"Furthermore, increasing evidence points to their influence on poor health outcomes being equivalent to the risk associated with severe obesity. Public health initiatives should therefore aim at reducing loneliness," they conclude.
 

Story Source:

Materials provided by BMJ. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

Anne Vinggaard Christensen, Knud Juel, Ola Ekholm, Lars Thrysøe, Charlotte Brun Thorup, Britt Borregaard, Rikke Elmose Mols, Trine Bernholdt Rasmussen, Selina Kikkenborg Berg. Significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality among cardiac patients feeling lonely. Heart, 2019; heartjnl-2019-315460 DOI: 10.1136/heartjnl-2019-315460

Ways women over 50 can achieve financial fitness before retirement part 2

                                                                         

                       
                                                             
                      Ways women over 50 can achieve financial fitness before retirement

the following info was found on pbs.org

By and large, women over 50 will have different financial challenges than their male counterparts, so keeping financially fit is important. 

Keeping physically fit is always important, but as we age, it becomes even more imperative to maintaining quality of life. Keeping physically fit is always important, but as we age, it becomes even more imperative to maintaining quality of life. According to personal finance expert and Next Avenue contributor Kerry Hannon, the same is true for financial fitness.


Hannon stresses the importance of “financial fitness” for women, and especially for female members of the baby boomer generation, who are now entering their fifties and beyond. “Women have been part of the workforce more in this generation than before,” Hannon says, they are also likely to stay in the workforce longer. The full retirement age for Social Security has risen from 65 to 67, and, according to Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies’ “Fifteen Facts About Women’s Retirement Outlook,” 57 percent of women plan to retire after age 65 or not at all.
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the following is my view

So, let's take a look at that last paragraph. Wow, 57 % of women plan to work past age 65, or not at all. Gee, I would love to know how many of that percentage of women are not planning to retire at all. I bet it would be a large part of that number.
When I hear on the news how the younger generation is the first to live as well financially as their parents, I think, oh really? How wrong that is... My parents were not rich, but my dad was able to retire and have pensions from two places he had worked, my mom was able to receive social security, although she never had a full time paid job. She did work part time throughout the years. She also raised six children. Now, so many women will not get social security and in reality, how many people, men or women are retiring now with pensions from 20 years or more?
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pbs

Women face some unique challenges in planning for their financial future. Women famously earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. In a recent article for Next Avenue, Hannon points out that women are more likely to deviate from their career paths by taking time off to raise children or care for aging parents. They also tend to work for smaller firms and nonprofits that may not offer to match employees’ contributions to their retirement savings plans, if they offer a plan at all. On top of that, Hannon says, “most American women will find themselves single at some point from the age of 65 to the end of life.” This means women should be prepared to navigate the financial world on their own in their golden years.
Research suggests the average American woman does not believe she is up to the challenge. A Fidelity study released in February found that 82 percent of women were confident in their ability to budget and manage their daily finances, but only 37 percent of women felt confident planning for their retirement. Hannon offers the following financial fitness regimen for women in their 50s who are seeking to increase their financial know-how.

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my view

It's kind of baffling that women feel they are not able to plan for their retirement. Yet they are usually the ones raising the children, balancing a job outside of the home, balancing money between childcare, food, bills, clothing, and emergencies.
Women usually put everyone first, and don't focus on their health, so it makes sense they wouldn't in later years.
In the next post, let's look at making time for ourselves. Fitness of mind and body.


Beginning article
http://olderwomenrockon.blogspot.com/2016/12/women.html

Technology and Family

                                                                   

                                                                         

Technology has had positive and negative influences on people's lives in so many ways.

Older people are no exception. 

Some of the positive ways, on a tech device it's usually easy to have a video call with our adult children and grandchildren. A simple emoji or a nice text message can be sent. Sending and receiving photographs and videos help us to see our family.

The downside: A text message on a special day instead of a phone call, not hearing you children's or grandchildren's voices for months at a time. The special times you may have had as a child with your own grandmother was something you wanted with your own grandchildren.

Yes, we understand that our children have their own lives, but to not even include us with a visit ever once in awhile, actually calling rather than texting.

Do you find yourself looking at your cell phone and wondering why they don't call? You can't figure it out because there hasn't been an argument, nothing you can pinpoint that was said or done to cause friction.

It's hard to find a way of coping with the emotional pain. There's no easy way to bring it up.

All I can tell you is that you are not alone, there are many older people out there going through the same thing.

No, technology is not the only reason for this confusing situation. But it's a convenient way for a relationship to be placed at a distance.