A person-centered approach to financial capacity: early memory loss, financial management and decision-making

OBJECTIVES

Previous research has noted that a person-centered approach to financial capacity assessment is feasible. This study of personal finance included a review of 12 months of checking account statements followed by research interviews to investigate income, spending, financial literacy, and financial decision-making. The objective of the study was to determine the convergent validity of excess spending to contextual aspects of financial decision-making, financial literacy, and early memory loss.

METHOD

Participants were 114 adults over the age of 60 who came primarily from two research registries; the Healthier Black Elders registry and the Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center registry. After sharing their checking statements participants completed two telephone interviews. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to compare those with no memory loss to the memory loss group, and to determine which measures were significantly related to excess spending.

RESULTS

There was a significant difference in excess spending between those with early memory loss and those with no memory loss. There was a significant difference in financial decision-making risk scores between the groups, as well as on a memory measure and a financial literacy measure. In a hierarchical regression analysis financial decision-making was the only measure significantly related to excess spending.

CONCLUSION

This study documented the convergent validity of person-centered measures of personal spending and financial decision-making with early memory loss. Early memory loss was related to both excess spending and contextual aspects of financial decision-making.

Social connectedness in older Urban African-American adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: the roles of education and partnership

OBJECTIVE

This study examined education, partnership status, and the moderating role of the lockdown period on social connectedness during the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of urban African-American older adults.

METHODS

Five hundred thirty-four African-American adults living in Detroit (91.0% female, Mage = 74.53) reported demographic information pre-pandemic and answered one social connectedness questionnaire between April and December 2020.

RESULTS

Participants interviewed after the lockdown (post-June 2020) reported more loneliness than those interviewed during the lockdown (April-June, 2020). Married/partnered participants reported less loneliness and social isolation. Loneliness did not differ between those with high education levels interviewed during the lockdown compared to post-lockdown. However, among individuals with low education levels, those interviewed after the lockdown reported more loneliness than those interviewed during the lockdown period.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest partnership status is associated with more social connectedness during the pandemic and education accentuates the effects of forced isolation related to loneliness among urban African-American older adults.

Engaging diverse populations in aging research during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned from four National Institutes of Health funded-Centers

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on our personal and professional lives required a rapid adaptation to the evolving health crisis and accumulating social stresses. Established measures to reduce the spread of infection and potential death had a direct effect on ongoing research that involved older adults and underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. Although important to preserve public health, these measures risk further isolation of vulnerable research participant populations and threatened established community partnerships. To address the social and research challenges evolving from the COVID-19 pandemic, four National Institutes of Health funded-Centers that engage with community members to enhance research and advance the science of aging came together to learn from each other's efforts, approaches, and communication with community partners.

Methods

Monthly meetings served as a venue to discuss the challenges of engagement with research participants and support community partners during the pandemic. The developed learning community also contributed to recognize and address research staff stress and isolation. We describe how these conversations led our Centers to address unprecedented challenges and sustain community engagement within diverse populations, especially Black/African Americans, Latinos, Middle Eastern/Arab Americans and the oldest-old.

Results

The exchange of information resulted in maintaining long standing community relationships and partnerships in the face of the uncertainties generated by the pandemic. The strategies included adapting education programs to reduce risk of infection, recognizing symptoms, promoting vaccination and understanding of the effect of COVID-19 to the brain. Different strategies were used to address the effects of isolation and maintain community engagement. Although new research participant enrollment was a challenge, telephone and virtual visits allowed research participants to remain active in research. Community members participation in virtual learning events was variable, ranging from a dozen to hundreds of participants. Invitations to organize panels about newly developed topics indicated the need for information from trusted sources.

Conclusion

In sum, the COVID-19 pandemic re - directed all four Centers' commitment to community service led to developing strategies for social support, which will potentially contribute to transforming public perceptions about research and researchers.

PREPARING THE GROUND: DEVELOPING COMMUNITY-BASED STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE OLDER BLACK MEN IN HEALTH RESEARCH

Black men across the lifespan are overburdened by poor health and underrepresented as participants in health research. The Flint Healthier Black Elders program seeks to engage more older Black men in research that could contribute to health discoveries by developing and testing strategies to recruit Black men into a community participant research pool (PRP). The PRP recruitment strategies account for the influence of gender role norms, mistrust derived from current and historical research and medical abuses, and other factors that affect older Black men’s willingness to participate in safe and ethical research. This initiative also focuses on building trust in research engagement by foregrounding the voices of local older men as community stakeholders and research gatekeepers, and tailoring multimedia recruitment materials to represent older Black men more fully and positively. Videos and print materials developed as recruitment tools specifically tailored to older Black men were pilot tested for messaging and impact, and the results of this community-driven process can serve as an innovative model for equitable and trustworthy research recruitment in Black communities. We would like to acknowledge the contributions of the Flint Healthier Black Elders Community Advisory Board: Yaushica Aubert, Rev. Dr. Sarah Bailey, E. Hill DeLoney, Luther Evans, Ella Greene-Moton, Cynthia Howell, Bishop Bernadel Jefferson, Beverly Lewis, Geraldine Redmond, Sharon Saddler, Arlene Sparks, Erica Thrash-Sall.

Engaged communication of environmental health science: Processes and outcomes of urban academic-community partnerships

Those who bear the greatest environmental burdens often have the least access to information, and explanations for engaging communities to develop solutions are lacking. We describe, and use a case study to depict, a participatory process of urban academic and community members to co-produce educational and communication tools. Over five years, we interfaced with 763 individuals at eleven events and three times that (n=2,273) through attendees' networks at 109 small group events using snowball methods. The resulting communication tools, paired resources, and mobile dissemination were responsive to residents' circumstances and enhanced their ability to access health protecting information and resources.

Promoting Connections Through Creative Approaches to Research Engagement for Older African Americans

This presentation will feature innovative retention approaches that contributed to sustaining connections to older Black participants in the long-standing Healthier Black Elders Center (HBEC). The HBEC aims to address and reduce health disparities through research and education. In 2020, this outreach has included a telephone outreach program and a weekly social group, “The Party Line,” to promote connections and collect data on mental health, coping mechanisms and newly acquired skills, as well as health care access including access to masks, testing and tele-health. The presentation will also describe tailored approaches to initiating a Community Advisory Board and programming in Flint, MI and creative efforts to retain participants in Detroit, MI, thus ensuring the relationships between researchers and older community members are sustained despite program modifications.

Building and Sustaining a Community Advisory Board of African American Older Adults for Volunteer Research

Older African Americans’ (AA) participation in health-related research is severely limited; they are not involved in sufficient numbers and for sufficient duration to ensure the applicability of advancements in medical and behavioral health. This research participation gap exacerbates older AAs vulnerability to poor health outcomes and disparities. The Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research employs a progressive community-based participatory model that utilizes a structured community advisory board (CAB) of older AAs in metro Detroit to oversee the research recruitment and retention of fellow AA older adult research participants. CAB members are provided ongoing training on social and behavioral health research, supported in acting as a consultancy to outside researchers where they can be compensated for their expertise and engagement, and empowered as gatekeepers of a participant research registry of over 1000 AA older adults. This model has broad potential for advancing community engaged research with AA older adults.

Building and Sustaining a Community Advisory Board of African American Older Adults as the Foundation for Volunteer Research Recruitment and Retention in Health Sciences

Older African Americans' participation in health-related research is severely limited; they are not involved in sufficient numbers to ensure the applicability of advancements in medical and behavioral health. This research participation gap exacerbates older African Americans' vulnerability to poor health outcomes and disparities. The Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research employs a progressive community-based participatory model that utilizes a structured community advisory board (CAB) of African American older adults in metro Detroit, Michigan to oversee the research recruitment and retention of fellow minority older adult research participants. CAB members develop and support community health programming that provides free resources to older adults and also serves as fertile ground for recruiting participants in a volunteer research registry. CAB members are also provided ongoing training on social and behavioral health research and are supported in acting as a consultancy to outside researchers where they can be compensated for their expertise and engagement. This community-engaged model of sustaining a CAB of African American older adults offers key lessons learned on building relationships and trust, valuing and leveraging community members' expertise and time, sharing decision-making, and fostering genuine community all while promoting research recruitment and retention among underserved populations.

An Innovative Telephone Outreach Program to Seniors in Detroit, a City Facing Dire Consequences of COVID-19

We write this letter to share our telephone outreach project that aims to address the health implications of loneliness, social isolation, and limited access to resources among older African American adults living in Detroit during Covid-19. The extreme health disparities evidenced by case numbers and death rates of Covid-19 demands our use of basic technology, the telephone, to provide social support and document their experiences to later share in their voice. It is our hope that other groups working with older adults can replicate these strategies.