15:45-16:45 | Orion Hall (5F) Friday Poster Session | AGen2023

69126 | The Elderly’s Organs are Ready for Functional Rejuvenation

Tae Jun Park, Ajou University, South Korea

Hong Seok Kim, Inha University, South Korea

Young Hwa Kim, Ajou University, South Korea

Young-Kyoung Lee, Ajou University, South Korea

Aging has been regarded as a biological process resulting from the accumulation of stressed or damaged cells, so-called senescent cells. However, interestingly, we found that the number of fully senescent cells was not increased significantly in normal tissues of the elderly compared to the young individual. Instead, fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells which are neither proliferative nor fully senescent, were commonly observed in the elderly’s tissue; we called them‘mid-old' status cells. The characteristics of mid-old cells are upregulation of inflammation-related genes and downregulation of antiinflammation related genes. Furthermore, we revealed mid-old cells develops an inflammatory microenvironment in the stroma via upregulation of MMP9 expression which decreases the stability of epithelial cells lying on the basement membrane, resulting in decrease of epithelial cell’s function. Strikingly, the microenvironmental change and the functional decline of mid-old cells can be rejuvenated by a young cell-originated protein. In sum, our data provided a new concept about rejuvenation; it can be achieved by the functional reverse of mid-old cells rather than the elimination of senescent cells themselves.

69472 | Demarcation of Midbrain Structures With Deep Neural Network and Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping

Farshad Falahati, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Jonatan Gustavsson, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Alireza Salami, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Grégoria Kalpouzos, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

The atrophy and iron load of the subthalamic nucleus (STN), substantia nigra (SN), and red nucleus (RN) characterize neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Despite their key role in motor control and cognition, they have been overlooked partly due to challenges in imaging these small and deep-seated midbrain structures and lack of accurate and efficient segmentation methods. Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), an MRI technique to estimate in-vivo iron contents, provides a distinguishable contrast of these iron-rich structures. We propose an automated segmentation approach for demarcating STN, SN and RN, based on a deep convolutional neural networks model with U-Net architecture and MRI data. MRI data including T1-weighted, FLAIR, QSM and relaxometry (R2star maps) in addition to manually delineated nuclei masks on QSM images of 40 individuals were used to train a deep learning model in single-modal (using each MRI modality individually) and multi-modal (combinations of MRI data) setups. Five-fold cross validation results revealed that the multi-modal model using QSM and FLAIR performed best (average Dice scores of 0.84, 0.91 and 0.94 for STN, SN and RN, respectively). Subsequently, the best model was applied on a dataset including 208 adults (age range 20-80). Cross-sectional analyses showed significant associations between iron content and age in the STN (r=0.47, p<0.001), SN (r=0.28, p<0.001) and RN (r=0.34, p<0.001). Our automatic segmentation approach using deep neural networks offers a novel tool to access and accurately evaluate volume and iron load of these small midbrain nuclei which can lead to a deeper understanding of their function.

Entrepreneurship/Silver Economy

67746 | Relationship Between Periodontal Disease

Yu-Hsiang Kuan, Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan

Ci-Wen Luo, Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan

Rosa Huang Liu, Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan

And

Dizziness

in Older Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Periodontal disease is the neglected syndrome that leads to tooth loss and systemic diseases in older men. Dizziness is a condition with high reported incidences; they worsen with age and can burden the health systems. The present study investigated whether periodontal disease causes dizziness in older patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Research data was retrieved from the National Health Insurance Research Database. Older patients with COPD were diagnosed with periodontal disease, dizziness. In the control group, we randomly selected individuals without periodontal disease who were sex and age-matched with the investigated participants. The Kaplan–Meier curve indicated that the cumulative incidence of dizziness was significantly higher among older patients with COPD and periodontal disease compared to the controls. After adjustment, Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed that older patients with COPD with periodontal disease had an increased risk of dizziness. Compared to controls, the risk of dizziness among periodontal disease was higher in women and male patients. Therefore, periodontal disease is not only a risk factor for dizziness, but also an independent risk factor for dizziness in older patients with COPD.

Lifespan Health Promotion

67605 | Senior Education: A Case Study of the Planning of LE-LING-University Project in C University

H. W. Ker, Chihlee University of Technology, Taiwan

Y. H. Lee, Tamkang University, Taiwan

S. M. Ho, Chihlee University of Technology, Taiwan

Owing to the rapid growing of aging population in Taiwan and with most of those seniors are active aging, government needs to provide them with learning opportunities as well as long-term care-related resources. In order to motivate seniors’ learning, and strength their physical/ mental health, Ministry of Education (MOE) has promoted senior education since 2008. MOE incorporated schools at all level, local organizations, and government resources to build up Senior Citizens Learning Center and develop varied learning projects for elderly people. Among these projects, LE-LING-University Project is implemented by the universities that MOE approved. It is "University for the Elderly". This project opens the opportunities for the elderly to enter the university campus. It utilizes campus resources to enhance lifelong learning opportunities for the elderly, provide a learning interaction platform for the elderly and college students, and promote intergenerational exchanges. This study aims to discuss the planning, such as contents/ strategies curriculum design, and investigate the satisfaction of the participants, of the LE-LING-University Project implemented by C University. The curriculum included five types of courses, such as "senior-related courses", "health and leisure courses", "new knowledge for life courses", "school characteristic courses" and "comprehensive learning courses". The contents of courses are designed to provide elderly learning opportunities for interacting with society, responding those problems facing by getting aging, nurturing senior professional manpower, integrating cross-field resources, creating friendly learning environments, and providing social- and interpersonal relationship support. Satisfaction survey will be implemented at the end of semester.

69085 | Action Research on Intergenerational Program of Senior Fitness

Fu-An Chung, YUNTECH, Taiwan

Wei-Shan Su, YUNTECH, Taiwan

This study applied intergenerational learning for the senior fitness, and to conduct the reflection on the teaching process via action research. To inspect the effects of their physical abilities and psychological feelings and also enhanced the professional growth of teaching practice. By intentional sampling,8 preschool's students and 12 members of senior fitness center have done exercise classes for an hour a week for 10 times. The qualitative data were collected via teacher ’s diaries, students’ feedback, video observation and semi-structured interviews.The results have the advantages of benefiting both body and mind, creating fun and happiness, enhancing self-worth, and being economical and sustainable.It is used for the purpose of elderly sports to provide reference for designing intergenerational physical activity courses, and to discover the implementation time as a reference for relevant units to establish and implement intergenerational learning to promote senior exercise policy and follow-up research, it has become a new trend for senior exercise to broaden the curriculum of joint exercise for the elderly and promote the independent exercise mode of the elderly.Also as a resource for the multifarious professionals and students, practitioners, investigators and policy makers.

Resilience

66689 | Nudging Resilience: Promoting Sleep Awareness in Ageing to Enhance Mental Well-Being among Adults Aged 60+

Serena Salvi, Northumbria University , United Kingdom

Dilek Onkal, Northumbria University, United Kingdom

Valerie Egdell, Northumbria University, United Kingdom

A renewed awareness towards self-directed age stereotyping in older adults has given rise to a line of research focused on the investigation of the influence of attitudes towards own ageing on seniors’ health and functioning (i.e., Levy, 2009). A key factor involved on older adults’ mental health is sleep quality (e.g., Park et al., 2014). Studies investigating self-reported sleep quality among older adults have suggested how this portion of the population would tend to accept disrupted sleep if believed to be up to standard for their age (Brouwer et al., 2005). On the other hand, dysfunctional beliefs towards sleep in ageing, might prompt older adults to report sleep disruption even in the absence of objective disrupted sleep (Macleod et al., 2018). To date, there are no empirical studies investigating a potential influence of age-based stereotypes on older adults’ attitudes towards sleep in ageing. This study aims to assess potential effects of behavioural nudges on older adults’ perceptions of sleep in ageing. More in detail, behavioural nudges implementing the representativeness heuristic will be used in order to assess how nudging self-stereotyping among adults aged 60+, can influence beliefs towards sleep in ageing and perceptions of sleep disturbances as a health threat. This study implements a randomised control trial (RCT) design. While previous research led by Levy implemented age based stereotypes presented at the implicit level of consciousness (e.g., Levy, 1996), this research will present age-based stereotypes at the explicit level, in compliance with nudge theory principles (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008).

68043

| Self-efficacy Highlighted Among Older Adults With Digital Competence in Times of Isolation

Cherrie Park, The Ohio State University, United States

Background and Objectives: The digital divide has long been a global phenomenon. Efforts to reduce the digital divide are considered important since digital competence not only brings physical resources but also brings positive impacts on psychological well-being. However, older adults often remain digitally excluded in many societies. To further understand the impacts of digital competence on psychological well-being, the author examined the link between older adults’ digital competence and self-efficacy. Design and Methods: Survey data were collected among individuals ages 65 and older (N = 185) living in the United States from February to August 2022. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted for the survey data. The outcome variable was self-efficacy measured by the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the explanatory variable was digital competence consisted of nine items asking how good the participants would be on the internet at searching news, shopping, sending emails, making video calls, etc. Covariates included age, gender, race, education, self-reported mobility, and perceived social isolation. Results: Significantly lower self-efficacy among Black or African Americans (β=-.15, p<.05) and higher self-efficacy among Asians (β=.17, p<.01) were found. Education (β=.15, p<.05), self-reported mobility (β =.18, p<.05), and digital competence (β=.16, p<.05) were positively associated with self-efficacy whereas perceived social isolation (β=-.30, p<.001) was negatively associated with self-efficacy. Discussion: Digitally competent older adults show significantly high self-efficacy when other covariates are considered. Although physical and social isolation might negatively impact on older adults’ self-efficacy, digital competence can help them maintain self-efficacy even in times of isolation.