STUDY LINKS IQ AND AFFLUENCE LEVEL TO LONGEVITY
[24 September 2003 - Center for the Advancement of Health] By following nearly 1,000 subjects during a 70-year span, Scottish researchers have found that people with high IQs who reside in poor neighborhoods lived longer than people in similar areas with low IQs, while the intelligence score was not important for longevity for people living in wealthy neighborhoods. �The significant interaction found between IQ and deprivation suggests that IQ in childhood is less important in terms of mortality for people who live in more affluent areas in adulthood than for people who live in deprived areas,� says Carole L. Hart, Ph.D., of the University of Glasgow and colleagues from other universities in Scotland. ...

A nation fooling itself: Why most pensioners will have to depend on government handouts
[September 24, 2003 - Times - London] MORE than half Britain�s workers will be forced to rely on state hand-outs in retirement, although most have fooled themselves into expecting a comfortable old age, a new pensions study shows. The Pension Map of Britain 2003, a study by JPMorgan Fleming, the investment bank, paints a grim picture of a nation of workers that is failing to save for retirement but clinging to the belief that they will have a retirement income of almost �19,000 a year. ...

Cognitive therapy benefits patients with dementia
[September 2003 - British Journal of Psychiatry via Reuters Health] Cognitive stimulation group therapy appears to improve both thinking ability and quality of life for people with dementia, new research suggests. Previous studies of this type of program have been small and nonstandardized, investigators Dr. Martin Orrell, of University College London, and colleagues note. In the current study, Orrell's team examined a cognitive stimulation program conducted in 18 residential homes and five day centers in England. ...

The New Old World: Politics of Aging
[September 2003 - AARP] The Project on America and the Global Economy (PAGE) and the AARP Global Aging Program held the second in their series of meetings on the challenges and opportunities posed by aging societies in the major industrial democracies. The second in the series focused on the �The Politics of Aging� ....

Politics of Aging Factsheet (PDF)

Employment in Europe 2003
[2003 - European Commission] The 15th edition of the annual Employment in Europe report is the first Employment in Europe report in which the acceding and accession countries have been almost fully integrated into the analysis. After presenting a panorama of recent developments in European labour markets, this report looks at several important issues of relevance to the new European Employment Strategy: it investigates the relationship between employment specialisation, skills and productivity. It further reflects on wage structures and the link between wages and productivity in an enlarged Union, and assesses existing wage differentiation across skills, sectors and regions. Quality in work is addressed in the context of labour market dynamics and flexibility. Finally, the ageing of the population and immigration are examined with regard to the implications for labour supply and employment. From this year the detailed charts, tables and statistical annex of the report are also available on-line for your personal use and presentations.

Labour Market Trends and Characteristics of Older Workers (PDF)

Average exit age from the labour force (in Europe)
[2003 - European Commission] The Barcelona European Council concluded that "a progressive increase of about 5 years in the effective average age at which people stop working in the European Union should be sought by 2010". The Stockholm European Council agreed "to set an EU target for increasing the average EU employment rate among older women and men (55-64) to 50 % by 2010". The Stockholm target (increasing the employment rate of 55-64 year-olds) and the Barcelona target (delaying exits from the labour force at mature ages) are measured by two structural indicators: The "employment rate of older workers" and the new "average exit age from the labour force". The annual monitoring of the Stockholm and Barcelona targets through these structural indicators will allow the Commission to assess, as requested by the European Council, whether Member States are "stepping up" efforts to increase opportunities for older workers to remain in the labour market. The attached main document analyses labour market trends in relation to the Barcelona and Stockholm targets.

AARP Global Report on Aging
[Fall 2003 - AARP] This report brings together the thoughts of policymakers and opinion leaders from around the world. ... (PDF)

It�s About Time: The Next New Thing
[May 2003 - Work & Family Connection] The terms work-family or work-life "balance" portray a very limited picture of a much more complicated set of roles and relationships, as workers move through their careers and their lives. I believe that now is the time for yet another reframing, one that moves beyond attempts to divide people�s lives into two categories. We need to find a way to capture both transitions -- in jobs, families, and well-being across the life course --, and the corresponding diversities of the new workforce. ...

Don't rule out value of retirees in the workplace
[28 October 2003 - The Olympian] "I'm depressed," the ex-CEO said. "I need some reason to get up in the morning, but society tells me I'm not needed. It tells me to play golf, go fishing and travel. I'm bored with that, and my self-esteem is in the subbasement." Why doesn't he go back to work or volunteer? Perhaps because we assume that being older equals having a diminished capacity. ...

Aging's Changing Face
[Jul/Aug 2003 - Psychology Today] Science is reshaping the way we think about the older body, memory and sex drive. More and more, how we grow old is a personal choice. Older folks are going back to school in their 50s, starting businesses in their 60s, training for triathlons in their 70s and, yes, having sex in their 80s. ...

'Retirement' a dirty word for many older workers: Older workers are finding meaning after ending their careers
[26 October 2003 - BostonWorks.com] Years ago, people reaching age 65 typically received a gold watch from employers and then golfed their way into retirement. Not anymore. A number of older workers are heading into their golden years determined to find meaningful part-time work after leaving the corporate or professional world. ''Retirement'' has become a dirty word for some members of this group, which includes the oldest of the nation's baby boom generation born between 1946 and 1964. ...

How Do We Measure Successful Aging?
[27 October 2003 - SAGECrossroads.net] Researchers are moving forward in their search to uncover interventions that could slow or reverse the effects of aging. With the public hungry for results, there is great attention on how we will be able to test outcomes from these new discoveries and gauge our longevity. SAGECrossroads.net will host a debate tomorrow addressing whether a 'gold standard' measure of aging can be found and whether the resources needed for the search are a worthwhile investment. ...

Boomers Unprepared For Retirement
[19 October 2003 - CBS News] Although 'Boomers' have had more opportunities, more earning potential, and the most overall wealth of any generation in history. John Rother of the AARP says they are woefully unprepared for the future. ...

Keeping aging minds sharp
[9 October 2003 - APA] Researchers are probing why a quarter of older adults maintain strong memory skills: Memory decline is not an inevitable consequence of aging--that for a particular subset of older adults, memory skills are as sharp as a 20-year-old's. ...

Researchers Find Clues To Healthy Aging: Optimism, Activity Among Healthy Habits
[22 October 2003 - nbc5i.com - FORT WORTH, Texas] Some elderly people remain vital, active and mentally fit into their 90s and others don't, but research is under way to determine why. Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. Brad Boeve says mentally fit folks over 90 can help researchers learn more about the mysteries of healthy aging. ... According to Boeve, he's also learning something else. "They have clues to longevity that all of us can benefit from," Boeve said. Clues include being optimistic, eating right, not smoking and most importantly, staying active socially, mentally and physically, Boeve said. ...

Looking at the world through older eyes
[21 October 2003 - SunSpot.net - Maryland] An NIH program with the American Visionary Art Museum pairs medical students and seniors to explore aging with art: The American Visionary Art Museum has space waiting on the walls for art created by seemingly ordinary older people. As part of an experimental program on art and aging, a dozen or so senior citizen recruits will have their work hung near one of Anna Mary Robertson 'Grandma' Moses' landscape masterpieces, The Old Covered Bridge, which she painted when she was 83. ... Experts in geriatrics and art say there is evidence to suggest people in their 80s and 90s can be more creative. At that stage, they say, social conventions are less important and inhibiting to people. ...

McKeon did for Marlins what aging boomers can for society
[21 October 2003 - The Christian Science Monitor] When the Florida Marlins needed a manager earlier this season, they surprised baseball fans by choosing Jack McKeon, a 72-year-old who had been fired by the Cincinnati Reds three years before. Most felt he was too old to come back, too old to relate to the Marlins' inexperienced young players, too old to turn around a losing team. ... There are untold numbers of older adults who have the will, talent, and time to be Jack McKeons in their own communities. As individuals and as a society, we need to act a little more the way Loria did when he hired McKeon. We need to see the promise and potential of older adults to bring about truly exceptional results. Then we all win. ...

Cognitive impairment worse than expected in seniors
[20 October 2003 - University of Pittsburgh] Archives of Neurology article finds that 22 percent of the population over age 75 have cognitive disorders, worse than those expected for normal aging: The rate of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in persons aged 75 and older is higher than expected, affecting 22 percent of those in the age group, according to two articles published in Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, and authored by Oscar Lopez, M.D., associate professor of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Lopez's research involved 3,608 people aged 75 and older who participated in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). He found that the majority of cognitive difficulties are the result of multiple problems, such as small "silent" ischemic lesions in the brain, depression, use of psychiatric medications, or other disease processes that can affect the brain (including chronic liver and kidney failure) rather than the onset of Alzheimer's. ...

Old knives don't have to be dull: Neurologist presents optimistic and encouraging view of brain function in middle and old age
[19 October 2003 - Jerusalem Post Internet Edition] An optimistic, encouraging view of brain function in middle and old age is presented by Prof. Robert Werman, a retired Israeli neurologist, psychiatrist and neurophysiology researcher who is himself a septuagenarian. Living with an Aging Brain: A Self-Help Guide for Your Senior Years, a 200-page softcover book just released by Freund Publishing House in Tel Aviv and London, offers plenty of evidence that exercising your brain can help keep your cognitive abilities in shape. ... To overcome downward mental trends, readers are advised to keep an active mind. ... He urges readers to spend time being creative and productive. ... "In essence, creativity is flexibility. There can be no new arrangement of flowers, no new gourmet dish, no original idea without first breaking the bonds of habit and custom." Elderly people who are fixed in their ways should try to meet new people and do new things, thus creating new brain connections and improving their mental flexibility. Werman encourages readers to exercise flexibility on a daily basis.

Who'll Sit at the Boomers' Desks?
[12 October 2003 - New York Times] During the Clinton boom years of the late 1990's, in one of the tightest labor markets in memory, corporate America was warned that if it did not cultivate older workers, they would take their skills and move on. One recession and one so-called jobless recovery later, some questions naturally arise: Was that warning ill founded? Was the tight job market at the end of the 90's an anomaly? Will chronically high unemployment be the norm for the near future? The answers appear to be no, no and no. ...

WORKING INDENTITIES AND CAREER REINVENTION - Several links and articles ...
Herminia Ibarra, chaired professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD in France, has researched and written about working identities and reinventing one's career. Her ideas are equally relevant to those moving from pre-retirement to post-fulltime work lives. Following is a link to her book, Working Identity, and some articles about these topics:

Working Indentity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career
[2003 - Harvard Business School Press] A call to the dreamer in each of us, this book explores the process for crafting a more fulfilling future. Where we end up may surprise us.

Nine Unconventional Strategies For Reinventing Your Career
[10 February 2003 - Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge] Here are nine unconventional strategies for reinventing your career: act, then reflect; flirt with your selves; live the contradictions; make big change in small steps; experiment with new roles; find people who are what you want to be; don't wait for a catalyst; step back periodically but not for too long; and seize windows of opportunity.

Provisional Selves: Experimenting With Professional Identity
[1 February 2000 - Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge] Herminia Ibarra's research into professional identity reveals three basic tasks in the transition of professionals to more senior roles: 1) observing role models to identify potential identities; 2) experimenting with provisional selves; and 3) evaluating experience against internal standards and external feedback. This excerpt looks at the second part of the process. See the sidebar, About the Provisional Selves study, for more information.

Managing take off and re-entry
[Summer 2003 - European Business Forum] To make the most of a leadership development programme, participants need to think about the 'before' and 'after'. (pdf)

How to Stay Stuck in the Wrong Career [PDF available from Amazon.com]
[December 2002 - Harvard Business Review] HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article, plus a synopsis and annotated bibliography. Everyone knows a story about a talented businessperson who has lost his passion for work or a person who ditched a 20-year career to pursue something completely different and is the happier for it. "Am I doing what is right for me, or should I change direction?" is one of the most pressing questions for today's midcareer professional. A true change of direction is hard to swing. Many academics and career counselors contend that the problem lies in basic human behavior: We fear change and don't want to make sacrifices. But author Herminia Ibarra suggests another explanation. People most often fail, she says, because they take the wrong approach to finding new careers. Indeed, the conventional wisdom on how to change careers is a prescription for how to stay put. Most of us have heard that the key to a successful career change is figuring out what we want to do next, then acting on that knowledge. But change actually happens the other way around. Doing comes first, knowing second, because changing careers means redefining our working identity--our sense of self in our professional roles, what we convey about ourselves to others and, ultimately, how we live our working lives. Who we are and what we do are tightly connected, the result of years of action. And to change that connection, we must first resort to action.

Study: Old Age Doesn't Spell Shift in Cognitive Strengths
[14 October 2003 - Washington Post] Research presented in the September issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General has shaken the long-standing theory that differences among people's cognitive strengths -- from verbal skills to mathematical ability -- become smaller as they grow old. ...

Life's Work
[14 October 2003 - Washington Post] At 102, Russell B. Clark isn't counting the hours till he retires. Been there, done that, got bored. The self-employed real estate developer and former surgeon from Orem, Utah, says he's worked since age 9 and has no plans to quit. After being named this year's uh, poster child for older workers by Experience Works, an Arlington-based nonprofit advocacy group for seniors, Clark spoke to us by phone. ...

Efficacy of an evidence-based cognitive stimulation therapy programme for people with dementia
[September 2003 - British Journal of Psychiatry - summarised in the ILC Policy Report] A study in the September issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry found that cognitive stimulation therapy, such as word games and reality orientation exercises, improved cognitive health and quality of life for people with dementia. The researchers note that findings suggest that cognitive stimulation efforts are likely to be beneficial for many people with dementia and should be regarded more positively by staff, caregivers and service providers. ...