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    By life stage ยท 12 tips

    Around retirement

    After 60, preventing falls, getting vaccines and guarding your wallet give the most for the effort.

    1 Preventing falls

    Don't die early

    After 60, train balance and leg strength, and make the bathroom and stairs at home safer

    Training balance 2 to 3 times a week, tai chi for example, cuts the number of falls among older people by about 23% and the number of people who fall by 15%. Having someone come to assess and modify the home cuts the number of falls by about 20%. Falls are the leading cause of injury death for people over 65 in China, and more than half of them happen at home.

    • Moderate value
    • Evidence A
    • Buys life
    • For: Elderly relative at home, Age 60+
    Don't die early

    Women over 65 should get one dual-energy X-ray bone density scan, and after menopause, women with risk factors for osteoporosis shouldn't wait until 65

    Women over 65, and women after menopause who have risk factors for osteoporosis, should have their bone density checked once. Checking risk first and then treating the high-risk people reduces hip fractures by about 17%. In numbers, for every 1000 people screened, about 5 fewer have a hip fracture. No change in total death rate was seen.

    • Moderate value
    • Evidence A
    • Buys life
    • Disputed
    • For: Women + Age 35+, Elderly relative at home
    Don't die early

    If osteoporosis is found, or you have broken a bone from a light fall, ask a doctor to prescribe an anti-osteoporosis drug and keep using it; calcium supplements are not a substitute

    For postmenopausal women who have been diagnosed with osteoporosis or have broken a bone, taking alendronate reduces hip fractures by about half and symptomatic spine fractures by more than half. For older adults who start a once-a-year infusion after hip fracture surgery, new fractures over 2 years are about 35% fewer. Calcium alone cannot stand in for these drugs.

    • High value
    • Evidence A
    • Buys life
    • Disputed
    • For: Elderly relative at home, Age 35+
    When there are elderly people at home

    If an older person's cataract already affects seeing the way, go to an eye doctor for an assessment and surgery; if both eyes have it, don't delay the second one too long

    For women aged 70 and over, having cataract surgery on the first eye promptly meant about 34% fewer falls in a year, and fewer broke a bone. But the number of people who fell at all did not drop. For the second eye, no clear difference in falls was seen. Among older people who had the surgery, hip fractures within a year were about 16% lower.

    • Moderate value
    • Evidence B
    • Buys life
    • Disputed
    • For: Elderly relative at home, Age 60+
    When there are elderly people at home

    If an older person walks a dog, hold the leash in the palm of the hand and don't wrap it around the hand, keep the leash short, and first train the dog not to lunge forward on the leash

    In the U.S., fractures among people aged 65 and over from falling while walking a dog on a leash were about 1,700 people in 2004 and about 4,400 in 2017, and about 80% were women. The hip was the most common fracture site, and nearly 30% were hospitalized. About three-quarters of hand injuries from dog leashes happened when the leash was wrapped around the hand and the dog yanked. So hold the leash in the palm, keep it short, and train the dog not to lunge.

    • Moderate value
    • Evidence B
    • Buys life
    • For: Elderly relative at home, Age 60+

    2 Vaccines and screening

    Don't die early

    Get the pneumococcal vaccine after 65

    In a trial of 84,500 (8.45ไธ‡) older adults, the 13-valent pneumococcal vaccine blocked about 46% of pneumonia caused by the types it covers, and 75% of the most dangerous invasive infections. But no effect was seen on pneumonia from all causes, so don't expect it to prevent all pneumonia.

    • Moderate value
    • Evidence A
    • Buys life
    • For: Elderly relative at home, Age 60+
    Don't die early

    Get the shingles vaccine after 50

    In a phase 3 trial, this vaccine blocked 97% of shingles, about the same across age groups. The drawback is 3000 to 4000 CNY for 2 doses, entirely out of pocket. What that money buys is a 97% reduction in cases.

    • Moderate value
    • Evidence A
    • Buys life
    • For: Elderly relative at home, Age 35+
    Living with a disability

    If your hearing is getting worse, get hearing aids, and do it so you can hear, not to prevent dementia

    The claim that โ€œwearing hearing aids prevents dementiaโ€ has not held up so far. A three-year trial of nearly 1000 people showed no difference overall. A difference was seen only in the subgroup whose risk of cognitive decline was higher to begin with. So the reason to get hearing aids is to hear right now, to talk with people, and to hear cars when crossing the road, not to protect your brain decades later.

    • Moderate value
    • Evidence A
    • Buys life
    • Disputed

    3 Money

    When there are elderly people at home

    Stay away from any "invest for your retirement" scheme that asks an older person to pay first: cards, beds, retirement apartments, travel-retirement and senior products are all the same illegal fund-raising

    Eldercare schemes that ask the older person to pay first and promise a return are all the same fraud: cards, buying beds, buying retirement apartments, travel-retirement, and meetings selling senior products. Under the rules, money lost this way is yours to bear. In one case someone took 136,000,000 yuan (1.36ไบฟ) by supposedly reserving beds in a retirement apartment, and harmed more than 2,100 people.

    • High value
    • Evidence A
    • Saves money
    • For: Elderly relative at home, Age 60+
    When there are elderly people at home

    Give an older person a ready line for turning things down: "I have to go home and talk it over with my family"

    Sales pitches and scams depend on pressure in the moment, to make you pay before you have time to think. When people get excited, they believe exaggerated ads more easily, and older people are more easily persuaded than younger ones. Agree on a line with the older person beforehand: "I have to go home and talk it over with my family." They can say it at any time, it gives them a way out on the spot, and they can decide after calming down at home.

    • High value
    • Evidence B
    • Saves money
    • For: Elderly relative at home, Age 60+

    4 Arranging ahead

    When there are elderly people at home

    While an older person is still clear-headed, name their future guardian in writing

    While the older person's mind is still clear, spend a few hundred yuan at a notary office to have a written document made that states who will be their guardian in the future. Without this document, once the older person can no longer make decisions, the order set by law applies: first the spouse, then parents and children, then other close relatives. If family members fight over it, the residents' committee (ๅฑ…ๅง”ไผš), the village committee (ๆ‘ๅง”ไผš), the civil affairs department (ๆฐ‘ๆ”ฟ้ƒจ้—จ) or a court appoints one.

    • High value
    • Evidence A
    • Saves money

    Related

    This site arranged the groups and order on this page; the tips come from the book. About