Most of our research is designed to help older adults and their families make decisions and choices about topics that impact quality of life as we grow older — choices like which products and services can help older adults live independently for longer, and delay the time at which growing older gets in the way of living life to the full.
In addition, some of our work is designed to help innovators develop products and services that older adults like us will actually want and find useful.
Recent Analysis and Exploration
Alzheimer’s Thermostat Design: Jeeves vs. Nurse Ratched
Thoughts about thermostats and people with dementia. Remember Jeeves, and Nurse Ratched? Imagine they were in charge of designing products for older adults. I wish we had the sort of products I imagine Jeeves would have designed for Bertie Wooster. Unfortunately, we seem to get the products Nurse Ratched might have dreamed up for the unfortunate inmates of “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
The Top Modifiable Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s
This article describes the top modifiable Alzheimer’s risk factors, and explains what you can do to reduce them. Currently there are no truly effective disease-altering treatments for Alzheimer’s, and by 2050 13 million Americans are predicted to have Alzheimer’s. The good news is that a number of the risk factors for Alzheimer’s can be reduced by appropriate behavior.
Mobile Medical Alert Evaluation: Archives
On this page we include some of our original, in-depth testing results comparing different mobile medical alert systems.
Get A Ride Anywhere – New Options for Older Adults
This article is about some exciting new alternatives that make getting from point A to point B by car much easier than in the past for those who don’t want to, or are not able to, just jump in their own car. We consider Uber, Lyft, Flywheel, taxicabs, and recommend the best rideshare app for older adults.
How to use Uber, the ride sharing App
We think ride sharing App’s like Uber are a great new resource that can help older adults get around more easily. This article (with videos) will describe how to get a ride using the Uber smart phone application, after first downloading the App and setting it up.
Rideshare App Comparison
We set out to find the best rideshare App for older adults. Our comparison includes Uber, Lyft, and comments about the taxi App Flywheel.
Mobile Alert Systems: Comparison Testing
We did hands-on, comparative evaluations of mobile alerts: a specific sub-category of medical alert systems. We looked at appearance, ease of use, speed to respond when we pressed the “help” button, how well the “location capability” worked in various different locations, battery life, sound quality, price, and more. While none of the products was “perfect”, several worked rather well. But some fell short.
Lively, Jitterbug Flip2
Best Jar Opener for Older Adults
Our explorer circles of older adults evaluated a range of jar openers, and found big differences between them. If you need a jar opener to help open jars for whatever reason, this synthesis will tell you which ones our Longevity Explorers liked and why they liked them.
Retirement Living Options
When it comes to retirement living options, the question of whether to stay at home or to move often looms large. Here are the things to consider so you make the right decision.
Retirement Living: Comparison Matrix & Talk
Retirement Living expert John Milford has created this talk and comparison matrix of pros and cons of different retirement living alternatives, using San Francisco Bay Area examples to illustrate the comparison process. Details include entry fee sizes, ongoing financial obligations, application requirements, and which entities oversee the different housing types.
Caring for & Dealing with Elderly Parents: The Books
In a previous article I did a little research to find the 10 “best selling” books on the topic of Aging Parents (on Amazon). I have now waded through them all, and in this article I summarize my impressions of the different books, in the hope that you can leverage my work so you need only focus on the ones that seem most useful for you.
Joe Maxwell’s Universal Design Kitchen
This article describes a piece of universal design (a kitchen) from 83 yr old designer Joe Maxwell. When you read about Joe’s kitchen design below from the 1950’s you can’t help wondering why we don’t see more Universal Design in mainstream products.
The Best Fall Prevention Program
Concerned about Falls? This article is designed to help you decide which (if any) is the best Fall Prevention Program for you. And to help you choose between the Fall Prevention programs available in your town, state and country.
Fall Prevention Exercises for Seniors
We look at different options for the fall prevention exercises component of a fall prevention program, and how to decide which exercises for seniors program would work best to reduce your fall risk, in this second part of our work on choosing the right fall prevention program.
Best Lighted Cane
Our Explorer circles of older adults wanted a walking cane with a light that would help make getting out at night safer. The Explorers found some promising lighted canes online, purchased a few that looked especially good, tried them out, and decided on one which was “the best”.
Toenail Clippers for Elderly People
Our circles of older adults have been exploring toenail clippers for elderly people. They explain that older adults often have nails that are hard to cut or hard to reach. The explorers are especially interested in toenail clippers for thick toenails, and toenail clippers that will work when a person has arthritis, and thus can not exert a strong grip on the nail clipper.
Ideas for Apps for Seniors
At a conference organized by San Francisco’s Institute on Aging, I ran an interactive “exploration”, in which we asked attendees to vote on “Senior Apps they Like“, or to submit ideas they have for “There should be an App for that“. We got quite a few interesting ideas, and this article reports the results of the session.
Best Rollator (Walker): Older Adults Explore
When acquiring a Rollator or Walker, which features matter for a given individual? And how does one decide which is the best walker or rollator to get for yourself, or a parent or spouse? The Longevity Explorer community explored questions like these.
Fall proofing ME: What Can I Do?
The media is awash with stories about older adults falling and hurting themselves, and these reports usually mention that one in three of those over 65 will fall each year. This article is about what you can do to make falls less likely.