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The Commission for Pedagogical Anthropology of the DGfE held a conference on the topic of "Aging and the Elderly" in Cottbus. The conference dealt with the cultural and historical conceptions of human images in different stages of life. Various aspects of aging were discussed, such as the staging of aging, the education of the elderly, and the significance of the body in old age. The conference offered an interdisciplinary exchange and expanded the perspective on the topic of "Aging and the Elderly" beyond the Central European context. The article is about a conference on the topic of aging and the elderly, where various speakers discuss different aspects of this topic. It emphasizes that aging is not only experienced physically but also corporeally, and that educational practices should take into account the heterogeneity of aging. It also points out the importance of power structures and social conditions in old age. Other topics include intergenerational relationships, memories, and the use of digital technologies in old age. At the end of the article, a network for pedagogical anthropology is introduced. [Extracted from the article]

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a part of everyday life including older adults, with one relevant area being AI-based voice assistance. Still, there is little research on AI voice assistance applications in older adults, especially those with intellectual disability. This paper anchors the topic of AI-based voice assistance in the aging and digitization research arena, putting emphasis on the need and importance of conceptual approaches established in gerontology and the health sciences. Following such conceptualization, we argue for the confluence of three methodological strategies and illustrate with the ongoing project AI-Ageing: (1) participatory research, (2) ecologically valid methods, and (3) automated emotion analysis as a particularly innovative assessment method in the area. Taking all together, we discuss the to be expected incremental value of AI voice assistance systems for older adults with and without intellectual disabilities and derive recommendations for their use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analogue and digital games are experiencing a growing demand even by players in old age. The article provides an overview of game forms and genres, motives for affection and age-specific preferences and thus also informs about the state of research on a target group that has not yet been researched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Within the context of the demographic change the proportion of the elderly in the overall population is steadily increasing. At the same time elderly patients are prescribed a disproportionately high number of medicines in comparison to younger patients. In the light of multimorbidity and polypharmacy which affect a relevant portion of the older population, drug safety is of particular importance. Results and discussion: In recent years, the prescription of psychiatric drugs to elderly patients was repeatedly subjected to regulatory assessment and recommendations, for example the safety of antipsychotics in patients with dementia. As only limited information is often available with respect to the risks of medicines in the elderly population, additional efforts are necessary for improvement of the database. In this context, the system of spontaneous reporting, e.g. the reporting of cases of suspected adverse drug reactions to the responsible authorities, plays an important role with respect to the additional knowledge to be gathered. By reporting observed adverse drug reactions as well as by the quality of the reported information, physicians are able to significantly influence the effectiveness of this system in a positive way. Outlook: As medical care for the majority of the elderly population is provided by general practitioners, adequate longitudinal studies are of special interest for investigating drug safety in the elderly. This aim is being pursued by the AgeCoDe study (German study on aging, cognition and dementia in primary care patients), a prospective, multicentre observational study, which is being carried out within the German competence network of degenerative dementia ( Kompetenznetz Degenerative Demenzen). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]