Neighborhood Environment and Self-Rated Health Among Urban Older Adults.

Objective: This study examines associations between neighborhood environment and self-rated health (SRH) among urban older adults. Method: We selected 217 individuals aged 65+ living in a de-industrialized Midwestern city who answered questions on the 2009 Speak to Your Health survey. The relationship between neighborhood environment and SRH was analyzed using regression models. Neighborhood variables included social support and participation, perceived racism, and crime. Additional models included actual crime indices to compare differences between perceived and actual crime. Results: Seniors who have poor SRH are 21% more likely to report fear of crime than seniors with excellent SRH (p = .01). Additional analyses revealed Black seniors are 7% less likely to participate in social activities (p = .005) and 4% more likely to report experiencing racism (p < .001). Discussion: More than 80% of older adults live in urban areas. By 2030, older adults will account for 20% of the U.S. POPULATION: Given the increasing numbers of older adults living in urban neighborhoods, studies such as this one are important. Mitigating environmental influences in the neighborhood that are associated with poor SRH may allow urban older adults to maintain health and reduce disability.

A new approach to IT security.

More than 60 percent of healthcare data breaches occur due to the loss, theft, or misuse of portable devices. Using a common application programming interface across applications and platforms to build and enforce object-level controls in information itself can help providers better protect ePHI and other types of digital data. Information objects can be engineered to be decrypted only when a legitimate user on a known device using an approved application opens them, and to control what the user can do with the information.