Grants look at the impact of digital games on older adults

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded $1.85 million of funding to nine research teams to study how digital games can impact health behaviors and outcomes. Three of the grants have been given to teams studying the impact of digital games on older adults.

Long Island University (Brooklyn, NY) Dance Video Game Training and Falling in Parkinson’s Disease—compares the use of a commercially available dance pad video game, Dance Dance Revolution, to two traditional treatment options that help people with Parkinson’s Disease reduce their risk of falling by increasing their balance, strength, endurance, motor coordination and visual-motor integration. The two traditional treatments are rhythmic stepping and treadmill training with music. The researchers assess balance, motor function, reaction time and self-confidence to evaluate the game in comparison to the two traditional treatments. They also use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to observe participants’ brain activity.

University of California, San Francisco (San Francisco, CA) A Video Game to Enhance Cognitive Health in Older Adults. As people age, they lose some of their ability to sustain their attention and to focus their attention on their main task while ignoring distractions. This study aims to improve these and other related cognitive skills by using a driving game in which players practice paying attention to relevant information, such as traffic signs, and ignoring irrelevant information, such as billboards. The study monitors brain activity with electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings and observes eye position and game performance in younger adults (ages 18 to 30) and older adults (ages 60 to 80) before and after six weeks of game play. The study assesses changes in cognitive ability, brain activity and transfer of game-related skills to similar cognitive operations and activities that take place in daily life.

University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) Robot Motivator: Towards Adaptive Health Games for Productive Long-Term Interaction—examines the influence of virtual social characters on people’s motivation to exercise. Study participants ages 60 and older are randomly assigned to exercise by following the lead of either (1) an embodied character, which is a human-looking robot that demonstrates exercises right there in the room with them or (2) an animated presentation of the same robot on a television screen. The study investigates the role of physical embodiment and social presence on participants’ motivation to engage and persist in exercise and physical activity.

For more information, click here.

The secret stuffing recipe

When I think back on the Thanksgivings of my childhood, I don't remember the food. Christmas, yes -- ham and cheesy potatoes, layered salad, springerle cookies and the annual green cornflake wreath with the red hot candies for holly berries. But Thanksgiving, brings more to mind the legions of people packed into the home of whomever was hosting that year -- my dad's 12 siblings and all their families formed quite an army to be fed.

However, when I got married and began having quiet Thanksgivings with my husband's parents, one set of grandparents and brother, things were different.

First, there is no rush to the buffet line -- we enjoy Thanksgiving dinner all seated around the dining room table. Second, I think because the atmosphere is calmer, I noticed the food more. And one food that everyone seemed to look forward to was his grandmother's sausage stuffing.

I'd never been a fan of stuffing and in fact generally didn't bother to even put it on my Thanksgiving plate. But presented with Buck's (that's what Mike calls his grandmother) secret sausage stuffing, it was polite to at least try it.

Delicious! Wow, I know that no stuffing I'd ever been served at my family Thanksgivings tasted like this. So, I came to look forward to Buck's sausage stuffing as part of the Thanksgiving ritual, too.

About seven years ago, Mike had surgery just before Thanksgiving, so we decided to stay home and celebrate the holiday with just our children. I bought a turkey breast and some jarred gravy, got the fixings for green bean casserole and made a pumpkin roll. Of course, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Buck's sausage stuffing. So I called to ask her for the recipe.

"All right, but you can't tell anyone my secret," she warned.

"Not a problem," I assured her, getting out a pen and piece of paper, mindful that this was the passing of a tradition, one that someday I'll pass on to my own daughter.

"Take one pound of ground sausage and brown it in a pan."

Ok. I can do that. Mike's grandmother went on:

"Then make a box of Stove Top Stuffing, stir in the ground sausage with a little bit of the grease and serve it with a smile!"

What?! This sweet grandmother's signature stuffing recipe was Stove Top? I must have sounded incredulous, because she went on to explain.

"For nearly 50 years, I would make sausage stuffing from scratch at Thanksgiving. It was a lot of work and one year I decided I was tired of doing it. So I bought the Stove Top and secretly made the sausage stuffing with that. No one caught on and everyone still seemed to like the stuffing, so I've done it the easy way ever since!"

I assured her that her secret is safe with me (except now you all know it!). To which she replied, "Good. Because the potatoes are from a box too."

I guess that's the beauty of getting older - having the perogative to do things as you want.

The Sneaky Chef

Amy Magan
Communications Manager

Public television premiere of "When Did I Get Old?"

"When Did I Get Old: Reflections on Aging Today" will make its public television debut on WFYI-TV in Indianapolis on Thursday, November 19 at 9:00pm EST.

Audiences at several viewing events have been excited to carry forth the message presented in the film, requesting copies to take back to their communities. Using examples from across Indiana, the documentary looks at four key areas for individuals and communities to consider in regard to aging: perception, purpose, place and preparation.

Though the film uses examples and aging experts from Indiana, the questions it raises are relevant to communities throughout the U.S. The collaborators of the documentary have also produced a discussion guide that will allow community groups to thoughtfully consider the subjects of perceptions, purpose, place and preparation as they relate to aging.

Additional air dates and times include:

Friday, November 20, 2009 at 4:00am EST on WFYI-TV 20.1
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 4:00pm EST on WFYI-TV 20.1
Monday, November 23, 2009 at 4:30am EST on WFYI-TV 20.1
Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 8:30pm EST on WFYI-TV 20.3

"When Did I Get Old: Reflections on Aging Today" was produced by WFYI Productions in partnership with the University of Indianapolis Center for Aging & Community and the Indiana University Center on Aging and Community, with cooperation from Indiana Grant Makers Alliance and the Indiana Division of Aging, and with support from the Daniels Fund in Denver, Colorado.

For more information about "When Did I Get Old: Reflections on Aging Today," including how you can arrange for a viewing for your community or group, please call the University of Indianapolis Center for Aging & Community at (317) 791-5930.

Copies of the DVD will be available for purchase from WFYI in the coming weeks. Click here to go to the WFYI online store.

Seniors savvy at shopping online

If you've paid any attention to the ads on television or in the newspaper -- or if you've glanced at the calendar, you know that 'tis the season for holiday shopping. A recent article by eMarketer Digital Intelligence cites data from the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing that shows a majority of seniors who use the internet do so, in part, for online shopping.

Online shopping among elder internet users (age 65 and older) was second only to their use of e-mail.

Add to that the 71% of Baby Boomers (ages 43-64) who engage in online shopping and that's a lot of purchasing power. In its daily e-newsletter sent on November 16, eMarketer suggest that companies offering e-commerce sites would do well to make their sites inviting to older shoppers by ensuring easy navigation, using large click buttons and fewer confusing boxes.

For more articles regarding older adults and their use of the world wide web, click here and here.

Success! Indiana Collaborative Conference on Aging - Day 1

As we're moving through Day 2 of the Indiana Collaborative Conference on Aging, the success of Day 1 is still fresh.

Dr. Charles Schewe, a marketing professor at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, gave the day a great start with his presentation "Age Really Matters: Marketing to Shared Experiences." Dr. Schewe discussed how the events that occur in our lives and in the world around us when we are 17-23 largely shape the values and beliefs we carry throughout our lives. Paying attention to those events and values is critical to effectively marketing to -- and serving -- all people, including cohorts such as Baby Boomers.

Conference attendees enjoyed three breakout sessions divided into the tracks of health and wellness, care and support, and Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

"Listening to Many Voices - Serving a Diverse Aging Population" sounds like a sleeper presentation. However, there was no sleepiness after lunch with keynote speaker Dr. Josepha Campinha-Bacote keeping the audience engaged and laughing with her sharp wit and enlightening thoughts regarding assumptions we all hold about those who are different from us. "Dr. Josie," as she refers to herself, was definitely a highlight of they day.

Day 1 also closed on a high note with the premiere showing of "When Did I Get Old: Reflections on Aging Today." Nearly 80 people stayed to view the documentary and join in discussion afterwards.

If you were unable to attend the Indiana Collaborative Conference on Aging, please visit www.inagingconference.com in the coming days to download PowerPoint presentations from each of our terrific speakers.