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This is the first study to investigate instrumental activities of daily living in older autistic adults. We conducted interviews with fifteen adults (mean age = 60.1, SD = 7.4, range = 50-73) from Australia with no intellectual disability. Analysis included both deductive and inductive steps, to categorise responses using the Occupational Performance Model Australia and identify themes across participants' experiences. Strengths and challenges were unique to the individual, as were the methods they had developed to manage tasks. Challenges occurred mostly at the interaction between aspects of the environment (sensory, cognitive, social and cultural) and personal factors such as health conditions and sensory sensitivities. Enhanced person-environment fit is needed, as is a shift in wider sociocultural attitudes to enable comfort and autonomy in later life.

Assistive technologies have the potential to provide accessible support to people with varying needs and abilities, including older autistic adults. However, there is currently limited knowledge about how older autistic adults use technology in their daily lives, whether it is sufficient to meet their needs and whether they experience any barriers to technology use. To address these questions, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 autistic adults aged over 50 years. Using thematic analysis, we identified two major themes related to how older autistic adults use technology: 'Helping to Manage the External Environment' and 'Increasing Everyday Accessibility and Convenience'. Overall, participants reported experiencing a number of challenges associated with performing everyday activities and while technology was able to offer some assistance, a number of gaps still remain in meeting the support needs of this population. Based on these findings, we offer some guidelines and recommendations for technology use with this population to guide future research and practice.

In the past decade a large body of evidence has accumulated on risk factors for dementia, primarily from Europe and North America. Drawing on recent integrative reviews and a consensus workshop, the International Research Network on Dementia Prevention developed a consensus statement on priorities for future research. Significant gaps in geographical location, representativeness, diversity, duration, mechanisms, and research on combinations of risk factors were identified. Future research to inform dementia risk reduction should fill gaps in the evidence base, take a life-course, multi-domain approach, and inform population health approaches that improve the brain-health of whole communities.

Background: Mothers of children with autism experience high levels of stress. However, little is known about whether maternal stressors differ across children of different ages. Method: This study investigated stressors in mothers of 29 pre-school-aged and 27 school-aged children with autism. Correlation and regression analyses were used to determine if maternal stressors differed between the two age groups. Results: Findings revealed no difference in maternal stress levels across the two age groups; however, stressors for each age group were different. Stressors in the school-aged group were related to repetitive behaviours, sensory sensitivities, and problematic behaviours, while stressors in the pre-school-aged group were mainly related to adaptive behaviours. Conclusions: These findings are informative for practitioners and highlight the need for tailored supports and therapies for mothers of children with autism of different ages.

The social difficulties of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are typically explained as a disruption in the Shared Attention Mechanism (SAM) sub-component of the theory of mind (ToM) system. In the current paper, we explore the hypothesis that SAM's capacity to construct the self-other-object relations necessary for shared-attention arises from a self-categorization process, which is weaker among those with more autistic-like traits. We present participants with self-categorization and shared-attention tasks, and measure their autism-spectrum quotient (AQ). Results reveal a negative relationship between AQ and shared-attention, via self-categorization, suggesting a role for self-categorization in the disruption in SAM seen in ASD. Implications for intervention, and for a ToM model in which weak central coherence plays a role are discussed.

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have explored dementia risk according to sex and gender including for transgender and non‐binary adults. This study evaluated dementia risk factors and risk scores among cisgender, transgender, and non‐binary adults. METHODS: Observational data were drawn from the 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. A matched‐cohort approach was used to develop sex (male, female) and gender identity cohorts (cisgender men, cisgender women, transgender men, transgender women, and non‐binary adults) for comparison. Dementia risk scores were calculated using established mid‐life and late‐life risk score algorithms. RESULTS: Males had higher overall mid‐life dementia risk, and lower late‐life Alzheimer's disease risk compared to females. Transgender men, transgender women, and non‐binary adults had higher overall late‐life risk compared to both cisgender men and women. DISCUSSION: Future research is needed to build the evidence base for specific risk factors that may be contributing to higher overall risk among understudied and underserved gender groups. Highlights: Using data from the 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, this matched‐cohort study found that those assigned female at birth had lower overall mid‐life dementia risk and higher overall late‐life Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk compared to those assigned male at birth.Transgender men, transgender women, and non‐binary adults all showed higher overall late‐life AD risk compared to cisgender men and cisgender women.Between‐group differences were found in the incidence of specific risk and protective factors for dementia and AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the need and importance of investing time and resources on the career development of early- and mid-career researchers (EMCR) in dementia. Topics include the need to invest in research capacity building, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) and the urgency of filling the gaps in the care and prevention practices in relation to dementia around the world.

Background Cognitive health expectancy estimates the proportion of the lifespan that is lived in good cognitive health at the population level. A number of cardiovascular diseases have been identified to be risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia including diabetes, stroke, heart diseases and hypertension. The aim of this study was to examine how these cardiovascular conditions relate to cognitive health expectancy. Methods Longitudinal data were obtained from the US Health and Retirement Study. Multistate modelling was used to estimate total life expectancy (LE), cognitive impairment free life expectancy (CIFLE) and years spent with cognitive impairment (CILE) across self-reported diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and stroke. Individual and cumulative effects of multiple cardiovascular conditions were examined. Results The presence of cardiovascular disease was associated with a 5- to 9-year decrease in LE and 4- to 8-year decrease in CIFLE at age 55. The outcomes varied in a hierarchical fashion by cardiovascular condition. Relative to other conditions, individuals with stroke had the shortest LE and CIFLE. Analysis of multiple cardiovascular risk factors revealed that each additional cardiovascular condition was associated with an exponential decrease in LE and CIFLE. Conclusions Having a cardiovascular condition is associated with a lower CIFLE and higher proportion of life lived with cognitive impairment. However, the outcomes vary depending on the type of cardiovascular condition. Reducing incidence of stroke and minimising exposure to multiple cardiovascular risk factors may be beneficial in helping to improve population estimates of cognitive health expectancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Interpersonal relevancy appraisals are a dynamic and understudied aspect of human social cognition. Despite their importance, there are no existing measures. This study developed and validated a new measure of self-perceived interpersonal threat, opportunity, and invisibility appraisals among a life-course sample of adults. We also explored the relationships between relevance appraisals, social connectedness, loneliness, age, and sex-assigned-at-birth., Method: Items were developed based on a theoretical model of multi-domain interpersonal relevance appraisals and refined following feedback from five experts in social psychology. Cross-sectional data were obtained online from a sample of 1,079 adults (age 18-90 years), recruited from the general population of Australia. Data were split into two pseudo-random samples used for 1) scale development and evaluation, and 2) assessment of internal consistency, construct validity, convergent validity with social connectedness and loneliness, and exploratory analysis with age and sex., Results: Results support the factor structure and internal consistency of 17- and 9-item versions of the Perceived Interpersonal Relevancy Scales (PIRS) and measurement invariance across younger and older age groups. Higher self-perceived threat and invisibility appraisals were associated with decreased social network size, increased loneliness, younger age, and male sex. Higher self-perceived opportunity appraisals were associated with increased social network size and decreased loneliness., Discussion: Results support this new measure of perceived interpersonal relevance appraisals, which shows relationships between the way we believe others perceive us, loneliness, and social isolation. The PIRS likely has wide utility for studies that seek to understand the intersections between human social cognition, well-being, and health across the lifespan., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)