This study examines intergenerational LGBTQ + friendships in Ireland, considering how queer understandings of time and ageing inform these relationships. Reflexive thematic analysis of life history interviews with seven younger (18-35) and seven older (60+) LGBTQ+ individuals revealed how shared queer experiences such as coming out, "gay age," and relived adolescence create commonality and connection despite age differences. These friendships are also shaped through intergenerational exchange and "role modelling," with LGBTQ+ knowledge and histories countering narratives like the "lonely old gay man" and offering alternative modes of queer ageing and living. While challenges arise from negative stereotypes, distinct historical contexts, and barriers to interaction, participants emphasise the sense of mutual understanding, historical connectedness, and hope for the future that underpins these bonds. Together, these findings illuminate what we term "intergenerational queer trajectories": nonnormative life pathways involving shared queer experiences, histories, and imagined futures through which LGBTQ+ individuals connect across generations.

This paper examines whether social activities mediate the association between hearing difficulty and cognitive function across contexts. Data come from the Health and Retirement Study (2012-2020), Mexican Health and Aging Study (2015-2021), and China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011-2018). Weighted multilevel generalized models were used. Hearing difficulty was associated with lower verbal memory in each database while the MHAS showed a comparatively smaller effect (bHRS = -0.094, p < .001; bMHAS = -0.080, p < 0.01, and bCHARLS = -0.093, p < 0.001). These associations remained statistically significant after adjusting for social activities. Hearing difficulty is associated with decreased social activities in HRS and CHARLS, but not in MHAS. Social activities partially mediate the hearing-verbal memory association in HRS and CHARLS, but not in MHAS, which highlights a non-uniform association between hearing difficulty, social activities, and cognition across contexts.

Health shocks may reshape health behaviors in later life, yet their implications for dietary habits remain insufficiently understood. Using six waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey from 2002 to 2018, this study examines the association between serious illness episodes and dietary diversity among Chinese older adults. The results show that health shocks are significantly associated with lower dietary diversity. This association remains stable across sensitivity analyses. Heterogeneity analyses further indicate that the negative association is stronger among the oldest adults and those with a higher chronic disease burden. Mechanism analyses suggest that financial condition, physiological functioning, and outdoor activity partly account for the association. These findings suggest that, among older adults in China, health shocks may operate more as constraints that reduce the capacity to maintain diverse diets. Post-illness care should therefore integrate nutritional support, functional recovery, and community-based assistance, especially for older adults with greater health vulnerability.

This study explores the digital skills and challenges of older adults living in long-term care settings. We conducted 14 focus group interviews with 59 residents in Switzerland, with an average age of 80, to identify the competencies they possess and the skills they lack. Participants described using digital tools to stay connected and maintain autonomy. However, they also reported barriers such as cognitive limitations, rapid technological changes, and difficulty managing digital information. Despite these challenges, many expressed interest in improving their digital abilities. Our findings show that older adults in care settings want to engage with technology but often lack the necessary support. We conclude that providing hands-on training, simplifying digital interfaces, and offering ongoing assistance can reduce frustration, build confidence, and help residents manage daily tasks more independently.

The present study investigates volunteering experience and intentions in a large quota sample of older Italian adults aged 60-74 stratified by geographic area and sex (N = 700), focusing on sociodemographic factors, Self-Determination Theory (SDT), and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Results showed that 35.1% of respondents engaged in formal volunteering in the 12 months prior to the study. Using logistic regressions, we found that past participation is significantly associated with higher education and income, better self-reported health, frequent religious attendance, intrinsic motivation, and perceived behavioral control. Conversely, probit ordinal regression showed that intentions to volunteer are primarily driven by prior experience, subjective norms, positive attitudes, integrated and introjected regulation. Our findings highlight the interplay between socioeconomic resources and socio-cognitive processes related to volunteering among older adults in the Italian context and can inform policies and interventions that promote active aging and well-being by addressing psychological barriers and motivators.

This study examines whether multidimensional social isolation is associated with all-cause mortality and explores whether these associations vary by gender and rural-urban residence in China. Using nationally representative longitudinal data from 12,686 adults aged 45 and older in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011-2020), we estimated Cox proportional hazards models examining social isolation as structural disconnectedness across five domains: partnership status, contact with parents, contact with children, contact with friends, and social participation. Social isolation showed a graded association with mortality, with moderately and severely isolated individuals experiencing higher mortality hazards than socially integrated adults. Being unpartnered and not participating in social activities were also associated with higher mortality. Stratified analyses suggested stronger associations with overall isolation among rural than urban residents. Findings highlight the value of examining both cumulative social disconnectedness and its distinct relational domains in understanding mortality risk in China.

Grandchild caregiving is an increasingly common later-life family role, yet its association with older adults' adiposity remains unclear. Using five waves of the Health and Retirement Study (2010-2018), this study examines associations between grandchild caregiving arrangements and four adiposity indicators: BMI based on self-reported height and weight, physically measured BMI, waist circumference, and relative fat mass. Linear panel models, including random-effects and fixed-effects models, assess whether adiposity patterns are linked to caregiving transitions or to broader differences across caregiving arrangements. Fixed-effects results showed little evidence linking caregiving transitions to adiposity changes over time. Random-effects models indicated higher adiposity among grandparents in household caregiving arrangements, especially multigenerational households, across multiple outcomes. Findings suggest that later-life adiposity differences among caregiving grandparents are linked less to caregiving transitions per se than to the household, socioeconomic, and family-role contexts in which grandchild care occurs.

Despite increasing pressure on primary care clinicians to provide accurate and timely assessment and diagnosis of cognitive impairment (CI), many remain unprepared. To inform improvement, we conducted interviews with 20 dyads of recently diagnosed patients and their care partners (spouses or adult children) to better understand experiences with CI assessment and diagnosis in primary care. Dyads reported wide variation in how primary care responded to their initial cognitive concerns, ranging from compassionate prioritization to minimization or attribution to age and/or physical comorbidities. Dyads also reported variability in testing, time to diagnosis, and the CI diagnosis experience. Many dyads described the challenges of living with CI including stigma, loneliness, and a desire for more support from primary care clinicians. Results identify specific areas of potential improvement in the primary care of individuals with cognitive concerns that should be embedded into point-of-care clinical decision support tools for primary care.

Changes in economic security and living arrangements among the diverse, aging U.S. population are not experienced uniformly. Using Health and Retirement Study data linked to the Elder Index[TM]-an income measure of older adult needs-we estimated discrete-time competing risks models to examine the first transition from economic security and independent living near retirement age (65-68) among community-dwelling older adults to: economic insecurity while living independently, doubling up (non-independent living by coresiding with any non-spousal individuals), remaining in economic security while living independently, or being lost to follow-up. A substantial portion of relatively well-off adults near retirement age became economically insecure (21%) or doubled up (15%). Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic Americans were also more likely to transition into economic insecurity while living independently and double up than non-Hispanic White Americans. Lastly, wealth near retirement age largely explained Black women's higher risk of becoming economically insecure compared to White women.

Violence against older adults often occurs within domestic and family settings, but less is known about how these contexts vary by age and gender. This study examines the associations of age and gender with residential occurrence and family-related offending in Brazil. Using nationwide administrative health records for individuals aged 60 and older in 2024, we estimate logistic regression models for both outcomes. Women have higher odds than men of experiencing violence in residential settings and reporting family-related offenders. Older age is also associated with higher odds of residential occurrence across several forms of violence. By contrast, the age gradient in family-related offending does not extend across violence types and is concentrated mainly in psychological violence among individuals aged 80 and older. The findings show that the location of violence and the relationship between victim and offender follow different patterns across later life.

We examine whether material hardship has adverse consequences for older adults' mattering, and further consider this association in the context of the quality and quantity of older adults' social interactions. Random- and fixed-effects models estimated using structural equation modeling examine the association between material hardship and mattering in a nationally representative longitudinal survey (N = 4,009) of older Canadians. Even after taking unobserved time-stable sources of spuriousness into account, material hardship is deleteriously associated with mattering. Frequency of social contact and supportive social interactions partially offset these effects by positively influencing mattering, but the consequences of material hardship for mattering are similar or greater in strength than these relationship resources, and they generally do not buffer the hardship-mattering association. Deficiencies in mattering among older adults are not simply a result of insufficiencies in social relationships, but instead fundamentally shaped by disadvantaged placement in orders of material resources.

The expected trajectory of parent-child relationships-parents investing in children for decades before eventually requiring their support-can take different shape when children's adult independence is constrained. Integrating the intergenerational stake hypothesis with the concept of generational maturity, this study explored one such case: how mothers of adult children with disabilities and other conditions requiring extensive care experienced and/or anticipated the later stages of their parenting journey. A thematic frame approach organized analyses of interview data from 72 mothers of adult children (82% whose children had serious conditions, mean age = 57). Mothers expressed grave concerns about their future deaths, focusing on who would care for their children, and tried to cope with their anxiety and guilt by concretely planning for their deaths and their children's futures. Some worried that their children might die first, including what their own lives would look like absent this closely identified maternal role.

Dental care utilization in later life may reflect changing health needs, access to healthcare, and social inequalities that persist across the aging process. We examined trajectories of dental care utilization before and after dementia diagnosis and evaluated whether these patterns differed by race/ethnicity and educational attainment. We linked Health and Retirement Study data with Medicare claims (1992-2020) among 2,838 dentate adults aged 65 years and older with incident dementia. Mixed-effects logistic regression models estimated changes in dental care utilization relative to the year of dementia diagnosis. Dental care utilization declined in the years preceding dementia diagnosis, increased immediately after diagnosis (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.45, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04-2.03), and subsequently plateaued. Non-Hispanic Black participants had lower dental care utilization compared with White participants (AOR = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.10-0.44), although trajectories of change surrounding dementia diagnosis did not differ by race/ethnicity. Racial and ethnic disparities persisted even among participants with higher educational attainment. Dementia diagnosis represents a potential transition point associated with temporary increases in dental care engagement, but it does not eliminate longstanding disparities in oral healthcare utilization. These findings highlight the importance of examining oral healthcare access as part of broader aging-related inequalities and ensuring equitable integration of dental care into the continuum of care for older adults with dementia.

Older LGBTQ+ drag performers remain largely understudied within gerontology and LGBTQ+ aging scholarship. This qualitative study explored how older LGBTQ+ drag performers make meaning of drag expression across the life course. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 participants aged 50 to 90 residing in the United States. Analysis revealed seven themes related to drag identity, embodied aging, resilience, marginalization, generativity, and intergenerational relationships. Findings informed an emergent theory of drag as a lifelong identity process. Participants described drag not merely as performance, but as an evolving meaning-making system through which they negotiated identity. Narratives illuminated the coexistence of resilience and vulnerability as participants navigated ageism, dragism, HIV/AIDS survivorship, bodily change, and shifting community dynamics. Findings expand our understanding of LGBTQ+ aging by positioning drag as a relational, adaptive, and culturally situated life-course practice that sustains continuity of self while resisting marginalization and preserving queer cultural memory.

This qualitative study explores how older adults (aged 65 and above) experience and perceive ageism in their everyday lives. Drawing on interviews with ten participants analyzed with a manifest content analysis, it highlights how ageism is expressed both subtly, through microinsults and microinvalidations, and overtly, through discrimination in healthcare, social encounters, and societal expectations, often intersecting with gender. The findings reveal a recurring pattern of shifting visibility, where older individuals, particularly women, feel increasingly marginalized post-retirement. Despite these challenges, participants also demonstrated various resistance strategies, asserting autonomy, redefining aging, and challenging stereotypes. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the lived realities of ageism and underscores the importance of empowerment and agency in combating age-based discrimination.