Better with Age September 2025

SEPTEMBER 2025

VOL. 1 / NO. 3

Better With Age 2

14

18

Why some seniors are choosing to sell their homes and go the rental route

Playing smarter: How you can prevent some common pickleball injuries

AARP calls Salt Lake County age-friendly.

What does that mean?

THE GREAT GOLF AMBASSADOR

At 95, Ernie Schneiter Jr. still goes to the golf course every day CONTINUES ON PG. 10

2 BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

UTAH

Why some seniors are choosing to sell their homes and go the rental route A report shows seniors have been moving into rentals recently. Here’s why they’re making this decision

By Caitlin Keith Deseret News

Ingrid Penn is 82 years old, living alone in her house in Taylorsville, but she is now looking to sell her home.

On a recent morning, the woman walked around her home explaining the difficulties for a senior to take care of her home by herself. She pointed out the skylights in high ceilings that she isn’t able to maintain, as well as a smoke detector that she wouldn’t be able to reach if it needed to be replaced.

“It’s too expensive to live here by myself.

There’s so much work, I always have to hire somebody,” Penn said. “And it’s too big for me.”

She shared that if she sells her Salt Lake Valley house she faces two options: to rent a place or buy a condo. Penn is leaning toward renting because if she buys a condo “it’s my responsibility to fix things.”

Penn added that buying a condo brings the same issues as owning a house, just in a downsized form.

She first moved into the house in 1987 but then moved to California and rented it out. She moved back to Utah in 2022 and started living in the house again after selling her condo in California.

Penn’s desire to leave her home and rent a new place aligns with the findings of a recent report from Point2Homes that found that in the past 10 years more seniors have been renting than in the past.

Study: More seniors have been renting recently across the country

The report, titled “U.S. Seniors Rent Like Never Before: 65+ Age Group Up 2.4 Million Renters in a Decade,” looked at data between 2013 and 2023, comparing the change in number of renters between over those 10 years.

• The report from Point2Homes found that between 2013 and 2023, the number of U.S. seniors ages 65 and older have switched to renting by around 30%.

The report found that between 2013 and 2023, the number of seniors ages 65 and older have switched to renting by around 30%. Senior renters not only increased by a large percentage, they also experienced the highest net growth in renting, 2.4 million more seniors renting over this period.

Only two age groups, 55 to 64 and 65 and older increased in rentership over the 10year period. The growth of renters ages

Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Ingrid Penn, who would like to sell her home if she could find the right situation and location, shows her home and discusses her hopes while in Taylorsville on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025.

55-64 was five times less than those 65 and older.

“They’re choosing to rent for flexibility, downsizing, getting out of a home that has already been paid off, and looking for smaller type of rental, lifestyle reasons,” said Doug Ressler with Yardi-Matrix, a sister company of Point2Homes.

He added that some rent for lifestyle reasons such as wanting to move into a community of people with similar interests in the same age group.

Ressler shared that many seniors want to move into senior living facilities and communities and that is something that Penn is looking for when she moves out of her house.

He also mentioned that when people typically think of renters they think of younger age groups, but that is constantly changing.

“I think that the different demographic age tiers or tranches are adapting to the economic winds and changes that are being put forth in terms of inflation,” Ressler said. “The new conditions today, as they continuously change, and will continue to change, will present different opportunities for folks in terms of housing that they will choose to adjust to.”

What the study says about Utah

The report from Point2Homes looked at the 75 most populated metropolitan areas around the country, including Salt Lake City.

According to the report, Salt Lake City has experienced a significant increase in senior renters, with a growth rate of 51.4% over the 10-year period where data was collected.

Ressler said that this is due to the area

seeing “tremendous growth” of smaller homes that are “built to rent.”

When talking about this, Ressler emphasized that seniors don’t want the maintenance of a large home, they want to rent something smaller that can be managed.

What areas around the country are seeing an influx in senior renters?

Florida’s metros lead the country in the amount of senior renters. In North Port– Sarasota–Bradenton seniors make up 21.3% of renters and in Cape Coral-Fort Myers they make up 18.5% of renters.

This solidifies the state’s status “as a destination for later-life living‚” according to Point2Homes’ report.

Florida also has the fastest growth in the number of senior renters, in Jacksonville

“

BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

It’s too expensive to live here by myself.

There’s so much work, I always have to hire somebody.”

Seniors are trying to figure out what to do next and where to go

Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Ingrid Penn, who would like to sell her home if she could find the right situation and location, laughs as she talks about her hopes while at her home in Taylorsville on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025.

renters ages 65 and older increased by 80%.

A strong growth of senior renters has also been seen across the Sun Belt region. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana senior renters also increased by 80%.

Ressler said there were some areas that did not experience a large increase in senior

renters such as Montana and Idaho. He added that some states in the Northeast lost some population to senior renters moving to the Sun Belt area.

According to Point2Homes, none of the 75 largest metro areas in the U.S. saw a decline in senior renters over the 10-year period.

Penn shared that she knows other people in her age group struggle to figure out whether they should sell their homes and where they should move to.

“A lot of people in my position, yeah, don’t know how to move forward. They’re just stuck, and they’re kind of anxious,” she said.

The retired nurse added that her family wants her to keep the house, but also they don’t live in town, so she is left to take care of everything on her own. Her kids want her to rent out the house but she told them if she did that they would have to be responsible because she doesn’t want any of the responsibility for the house anymore.

Penn shared that she has a lot of options

on where she can go and what she can do with her money after selling her house, but she’s just trying to figure out what the best option for her is. She confirms that her age plays a big factor in that decision.

She mentioned that one thing she is looking for is moving closer to the Murray Senior Recreation Center since she goes there at least three times a week.

This report doesn’t reflect the needs and wants of all seniors

Rosie Bayne is a realtor who works along the Wasatch Front. She hasn’t seen a big increase in the number of seniors renting recently. She believes that most people want to keep their homes that they own.

“I’m not seeing seniors sell their house, because, you know, the majority of these seniors are boomers. They have owned their home for a really long time, so all they’re paying is property insurance and taxes,” Bayne said.

She did say that she could see some people wanting to sell their primary residence to move into a senior living community, but not super often. Typically, Bayne said, they do this when they aren’t able to do stairs anymore and they have other issues within their house.

Bayne added that she doesn’t often see seniors choosing to move out of a home they own and move into a rental, but mostly do it because it’s their only option.

Another factor that can play into senior housing, Bayne said, is whether or not their kids are involved and are helping them.

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4 BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

SPORTS

At 76, ‘Batman’ is living his dream

Isaac Hale, Deseret News

Gene Chidester, 76, a batboy for the Salt Lake Bees, runs back to the visiting team's dugout after retrieving a bat during a Minor League Baseball game between the Bees and the Las Vegas Aviators held at The Ballpark at America First Square in South Jordan on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025.

By Lee Benson Deseret News

Seventy-six-year-old Gene Chidester has experienced a lot in his life. He’s had two separate but equally successful careers, first in the tech industry with Hewlett-Packard, then in private business with a dietary supplements company. He’s lived in Oregon and Utah and spent three years in Uruguay as a Latter-day Saint mission president. He’s currently on the advisory board for the Center of Hope Food Pantry and serving on the Communications Committee (formerly Public Affairs) for the Church of Jesus Christ. He and his wife, Robyn, have raised five children and spoiled 17 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. They have a vacation cabin out-

side of Heber City.

But until four years ago, there was one experience he hadn’t had.

He’d never been a batboy.

The idea of being one had been lodged in his mind for as long as he could remember — ever since he was a young boy and his dad took him to watch the Salt Lake Bees play at Derks Field in the ’50s and ’60s. Retrieving balls and bats, hanging out in the dugout, close enough to feel the whir of 90 mph fastballs, all of it looked like it would be a cool experience.

So in the summer of 2022 he decided to do something about it. ***

He was watching the Bees play at Smith’s Ballpark (the former Derks Field) with his family, sitting above the dugout on the first-base line, soaking in the atmosphere in one of America’s most scenic baseball fields, when he leaned over to his wife and said, “The time has come.”

To which she said: “The time for what?”

“To get a job as a batboy,” he replied.

That night he went online to the Bees website, “and lo and behold there was an opening for a dugout attendant.” AKA batboy.

Gene applied.

CONTINUES ON PG. 6

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6 BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025 There was nothing in the application regarding age so he didn’t put his down.

He was 73.

Then, lo and behold, he got hired.

He met with Marc Amicone, then the Bees general manager, and Chris Simonsen, the clubhouse manager, neither of whom took issue with his age, or stared at his gray hair, or asked him what time he went to bed.

Like the ballplayers, if he could cut it on the field, he was in.

He’s been in ever since.

This year is his fourth season. A good indicator to how well it’s going, when the Bees switched their playing field from downtown Salt Lake to South Jordan this year — turning what had been a 15-minute commute for Gene into an hour when the traffic is heavy (which it usually is) — he didn’t balk at the added time and distance.

“Hey, man, I’m up to $12 an hour,” he grins, noting that he started at $10 an hour.

The experience hasn’t met his expectations, it’s far exceeded them.

“I’ve always loved baseball,” he says, “I just love being a part of all this.”

Except for cleaning cleats after the game, a task Gene calls “the only sucky part.”

Everything else, if anything, it’s made him younger.

His shift starts around 5 p.m. with Gene and the other batboy, usually a high school-aged kid, “mudding” the baseballs.

It takes about an hour to lightly smear MLB-approved Delaware River mud on 15 dozen baseballs. (The mud improves the grip, Gene explains; it’s a ritual that takes place before every game in every professional baseball league in America.)

During the game, he gets in his 10,000 steps and then some — delivering balls to the umpire, collecting bats and helmets and various other duties. Mentally, he has to stay acutely aware of foul balls, broken bats and everything else that’s going on. “You cannot drift,” he says.

He’s struck up friendships with opposing managers and umpires. “The umpires are very cordial,” he says, “very re-

Gene Chidester, 76, a batboy for the Salt Lake Bees, collects discarded towels from the visiting team's dugout after a Minor League Baseball game between the Bees and the Las Vegas Aviators held at The Ballpark at America First Square in South Jordan on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025.

Isaac Hale, Deseret News

spectful. I’ve gotten to know some of them because I keep coming back, and it’s fun, because these are young guys trying to build their careers too, just like the players.”

He and Robyn have had Bees players for dinner and hosted them at their cabin. The club has had several Latin ballplayers, “and I make a point to speak to them in Spanish, and they really like that,” says Gene.

His family has a nickname for him. They call him Dug, “short for Dugout Attendant.” Some of the managers and umpires call him “Mr. Gene.” But the name he hears most

often, of course, is Batman.

A friend of his has gone so far as to make up a baseball card with “Gene Chidester, Batman.”

“All I need now is some bubblegum and I’ll be in business,” jokes Gene.

“I know I’m an anomaly,” says what might be the world’s oldest batboy. “But I love being around young people and I love being around baseball. I want to do this as long as I can do it, as long as they’ll have me. It’s funny, as each season goes on, the legs just seem to get stronger.”

“I love being around baseball.

I want to do this as long as I can do it, as long as they’ll have me.”

Isaac Hale, Deseret News

Gene Chidester, 76, a batboy for the Salt Lake Bees, watches as kids swarm around a ball he threw to them after a Minor League Baseball game between the Bees and the Las Vegas Aviators held at The Ballpark at America First Square in South Jordan on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025.

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8 BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

HEALTH

Trying to keep your brain young as you age?

Study says to make these changes Sedentary people in their 60s and 70s can change their health trajectory. Even better, start younger.

Eliza Anderson, Deseret News

By Lois M. Collins Deseret News

Older Americans in their 60s and 70s can improve thinking and memory through a combination of diet, exercise and brain training.

That’s the finding of a new study involving more than 2,100 older adults at risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

The researchers, from five U.S. academic and health institutions across the country,

showed that “a structured lifestyle intervention of regular moderate- to high-intensity physical exercise, adherence to the MIND diet, cognitive challenge and social engagement and cardiovascular health monitoring was better at preserving thinking and memory than self-guided, lower-intensity efforts.”

Both interventions helped. But the structured program provided greater gains.

“Our findings have tremendous implications for older adults: It is never too late to

make lifestyle changes that can have measurable impact on one’s brain health,” said Jeffrey Katula, McDonough Family Faculty Fellow in the Wake Forest Department of Health and Exercise Science, in a story from Wake Forest News. He worked with principal investigator Laura D. Baker, a professor of gerontology, geriatrics and internal medicine at Wake Forest’s medical school, to design and coordinate the study.

The findings were published this week in

the Journal of the American Medical Association and presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto.

The study is called the “U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health Through Intervention to Reduce Risk” (U.S. POINTER).

The findings showed no differences by age, sex, ethnicity, heart health status and APOE4 genotype. The APOE4 allele is considered a risk factor for and possibly a cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

“

Our findings have tremendous implications for older adults: It is never too late to make lifestyle changes that can have measurable impact on one’s brain health.”

— Jeffrey Katula

The study is the first large-scale, randomized controlled clinical trial to show that accessible, sustainable healthy lifestyle changes can protect cognitive function among diverse U.S. populations. Alzheimer’s Association president and CEO Joanne Pike said in a news release that communities could scale it to meet needs.

“The positive results of U.S. POINTER encourage us to look at the potential for a combination of a lifestyle program and drug treatment as the next frontier in our fight against cognitive decline and possibly dementia,” she said.

About the study

While the two interventions both centered around exercise, nutrition, cognitive challenge, social engagement and heart health monitoring, they were different in terms of their intensity, structure, accountability and how much support was provided to those participating.

The group randomized into the structured intervention attended 38 facilitated peer team meetings over the course of two years and were given specific sets of activities that had measurable goals. Those included aerobic, resistance and stretching exercises; following the MIND diet; challenging themselves mentally through an online program called BrainHQ training and “other intellectual and social activities.” Their goal-setting and health metrics were regularly reviewed by a study clinician.

BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025 The MIND Diet stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. It combines the Mediterranean diet with the DASH diet, which is designed to deal with hypertension and heart health.

Fruits, especially berries, are key. But so are green, leafy vegetables, nonstarchy vegetables, nuts, olive oil, whole grains, fish, beans and poultry, according to Healthline. Regularly eating butter and margarine, cheese, red meat, fried food and pastries and sweets is discouraged because they contain saturated fats.

The Healthline article notes the health effects of saturated fat are “widely debated in the nutrition world.”

The self-guided intervention included six peer team meetings to “encourage self-selected lifestyle changes that best fit their needs and schedules.” Staff provided general encouragement but didn’t help set goals.

The mean age of the study participants was 68.2 years and nearly 7 in 10 participants were female. Just under a third were from ethnoracial minority groups. Almost 8 in 10 reported a first-degree relative with memory loss and 30% were APOE4 carriers. Nearly 9 in 10 stayed in the study for the full two years.

Both groups improved in terms of thinking and memory. Memory improvements were about the same overall, but executive function improved more for those in the structured arm of the study.

Future plans to target healthy cognition

The researchers called the results “initial” and said they will continue to explore all the collected data to learn even more.

Per the Alzheimer’s Association news release, “People with cognitive decline and dementia often have a variety of damaging changes in their brain. This means effective treatment will likely require a multi-pronged or combination strategy to address multiple disease mechanisms.”

The association said it has invested almost $50 million in the study so far, with other support from the National Institute on Aging for complementary studies on imaging, vascular measures and health data related to sleep and gut microbiome. The association said it plans to invest at least $40 million more over the next four years to continue to follow the study participants and to bring the study’s interventions to communities across America.

The Alzheimer’s Association also announced it will build on the study’s momentum with several programs and initiatives, including: • A personal brain health assessment tool.

• A virtual brain health training program for health care providers.

• A recognition program for community groups that champion brain health.

• A brain health roundtable to unite leaders from health care, public health, community and corporate sectors to “accelerate impact.”

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10 BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

COVER STORY

Utah’s lifetime ambassador for the game of golf

Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News

Ernie Schneiter Jr., who is 95, talks with patrons at Schneiter's Riverside Golf in Ogden on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025.

By Lee Benson Deseret News

It’s been 80 years, but Ernie Schneiter Jr. can still pinpoint exactly when he stopped skiing.

It wasn’t an easy decision, given that he had a good winter job working at the recently opened Snowbasin ski resort above his hometown of Ogden. His dad, Ernie Schneiter Sr., was the manager at Snowbasin and gave his son the plum assignment of being last person down the hill each night, hoisting the rope tow onto tall hooks to prevent it from being buried the next morning in the event of a heavy snowfall.

It was a pretty sweet duty, all alone on the slopes as the sun began to set in the west.

But in the summer of 1945, the year he turned 15, Ernie went to Nibley Park Golf Course in Salt Lake City and won the Utah Junior Open.

“So I quit skiing,” he says. “I didn’t want to hurt a leg or whatever.”

Turned out to be a great decision for a man who, eight decades later, still goes to the golf course every day.

Turned out to be an even greater decision for Utah golf.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a greater lifetime ambassador for the sport in the state, and even harder pressed to find anyone who would argue the point. *** It began with Ernie’s father, Ernie Sr., who was 10 years old in 1917 when he started caddying at Ogden Country Club — for two simple reasons: he lived next door to the course and his widowed mother Margaritha, who recently immigrated from Switzerland and was doing janitor work at Burch Creek Elementary School, could use the financial help.

This was long before “Schneiter” became a regal name in Utah golf circles. Up to this point, there was no history of golf in the Ger-

man-speaking clan, no hint there would be much of a connection.

But the game grabbed Ernie Sr. and never let go. By the time his namesake son came along in 1930, he had made the leap from caddy to club professional, launching a career that would not only land him in the inaugural class of the Utah Golf Hall of Fame (along with his younger brother George) but, of much greater impact, inspire future generations of Schneiters to grow and build the game from one end of Utah to the other.

Ernie Jr. was at the front of that line. He followed up his Utah Junior Open victory in 1945 — the trophy that got him to quit skiing — with two more in 1946 and 1947. That led to an invitation from Oklahoma State to interview for their golf team. Instead, Ernie decided to turn pro and start making some money. He was 19 when he was hired at the municipal golf course in Tooele, his first job in golf.

Then, paradoxically, he took a break and became a farmer. His dad, who was now head professional at Ogden C.C., his old caddy grounds, bought a 30-acre farm in Morgan and talked Ernie into running it. After years of milking 30 cows a day, Ernie came to the realization that “I liked golf better than farming” and went back to being a golf pro, first in Twin Falls, Idaho, then at Ben Lomond Golf Course in Ogden. (The farm years helped his distance: After years of hoisting 100-pound bales of hay, Ernie won three straight state long-drive competitions, his longest drive carrying 285 yards — off a persimmon club.)

Then, in 1959, he bought his own farm. But not so he could milk more cows — so he could turn it into a golf course.

The property was next to the Weber River on the southern outskirts of Ogden. He and the farmer, who was elderly and amenable to selling, struck up a handshake deal: 76 acres for $500 an acre. The terms were pay-as-you-can.

In addition to his income as a golf pro at Ben Lomond, Ernie was able to help pay for the property with his tournament winnings.

Among his top wins were the 1964 Idaho Open and the 1966 Utah Open ($2,000 to the winner). His most prestigious victories came in the PGA Sectional, which he won three times, in 1957, 1968 and 1970, each one qualifying him to play in the PGA Championship alongside the best players in the world. (At the 1968 event in San Antonio, Ernie likes to quip, “That’s when I tied Jack Nicklaus,” before pausing and adding, “We both missed the cut by one stroke.”)

For the last 56 years, Ernie has served as head professional at the course he bought, designed and bears his name: Schneiter’s Riverside (he also designed and built Schneiter’s Bluff in Davis County in 1999).

The course is pristine and friendly, like Ernie, who at 95 still looks like he might get carded. He doesn’t play as much anymore, or give lessons like he used to (Ask him for his No. 1 golfing tip and he says: “Take some instruction”), but he’s on the scene every day, surrounded by many of his children and grandchildren who work there. He typically arrives around 10 and leaves around 5:30, ready to do “anything I see: fill the range buckets, sweep the porch, go back and cook a hamburger.”

But his favorite part is talking to the golfers.

“Aren’t they fun?” he says. “There’s so many different kinds. They’re so interesting.

“I think we all need to be social,” he adds.

“I think we all need to have exercise and discipline, and get outside in the sunshine.”

And he’s found the perfect way to do that.

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12 BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

DESERET NEWS

What keeps you young: A new survey shows why Utah ranks 4th for healthy seniors Utah did well in several categories

By Lois M. Collins Deseret News

Bonnie Shepherd’s got a schedule that could frazzle a much younger person.

The Salt Lake octogenarian has a Pilates class four times a week and walks on the other days, meets friends at least weekly for lunch, facilitates three support groups, serves on the board of the Utah Alzheimer’s Association and has served on the board of the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (which her husband Ned had before he died). She also goes with a pal to any Jazz concert she can find.

She serves, too, on the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias State Council, one of the members who helped write the state’s forward-looking plan to deal with the expected tsunami of age-related neurocognitive decline as Utah ages.

She and two other friends check in with each other at least daily. Then there’s family time.

She had been married and he was widowed, so when she and Ned married, they created a blended family that included the two children they each had and she’s still busy doing family things with them and with her extended family.

In her “spare time,” she reads avidly — she alternates between books that are simply fascinating like a recent one by the founder of PayPal and “trash,” which she also enjoys. She consumes the content of The New York Times and local news daily and when she’s cleaning she listens to books on tape. She loves jigsaw puzzles, but has to pick her moments, because once she starts one, she has a very hard time stopping, she said.

What doesn’t she do herself?

“I hire someone to wash my windows. And I don’t do yard work now.”

Shepherd will be 84 this summer.

And exhausting as it all sounds, she’s adopted and adapted to many of the habits keys experts recommend if you want to age well and keep your wits about you. There are proactive steps people can take to stay healthy, including reducing risk of cognitive decline.

“I just think that it’s really important to take care of yourself and to live as long as you can, as healthy as you can for yourself and for your family,” she said. “I want to be active and have a good life, not a sick life.”

Ranking policies, communities for senior health

Right now there are more than 59 million older adults in the United States, some healthy and active like Shepherd and a lot of them

Tess Crowley, Deseret News

Bonnie Shepherd, center, meets with friends Diane McMakin, left, and Kim S., off camera, for lunch at Great Harvest Bakery Cafe in Salt Lake City on Friday, June 6, 2025.

not. Aging well is a partnership that includes individuals and the choices they make about how they will live, as well as the community in which they find themselves. There’s a lot to consider when it comes to what leads older adults to flourish or flounder, from genetics to environment to activity level, social engagement, public policies, poverty and more.

Every year, United Health Foundation issues America’s Health Ranking and for 13 years has looked at the health of those 65 and older. The “2025 Senior Report” found Utah does pretty well — it’s No. 4 among states on the flourish side of things, behind Vermont, Colorado and Washington. Using only publicly available data from 28 sources, the report considered 55 measures and overall found nationwide more social connection and less early death, which means those 65-74 in this report.

But the report also noted persistent men-

tal and behavioral health challenges for older American adults. Drug-related deaths have increased, a category that considers both prescription and non. Dr. Ravi Johar, chief medical officer at UnitedHealthcare, told Deseret News that many of those deaths are due to changes in metabolism and medication interactions.

Sometimes, a person doesn’t remember taking a drug and takes too much, as well, he added.

Suicide rates are also up. Both suicide and drug-related deaths are at their highest level the annual assessment has seen. The report noted that chronic disease accounted for 6 of the top 10 causes of premature death among those 65 to 74 in 2023. Better news, though, is that premature deaths have fallen to pre-pandemic rates, when the numbers surged across the country.

Poverty has risen and is a reality for about 1 in 9 older adults. Said Johar, “Poverty impacts health in ways that people don’t even under-

stand. Being able to get healthy food, fresh fruit, being able to fill your medications, being able to have a safe, healthy living environment, all of those are factors.” Financial resources, he added, are essential to good, safe transportation and communication tools like high-speed internet.

Falls and obesity are both challenges, but the numbers have been stable for a few years.

While Shepherd is very active and engaged, lots of older adults are not. Johar called loneliness and isolation “a real problem among seniors especially.” About a third are obese and fewer than a third meet the recommended activity level of 150 minutes of moderate activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, along with muscle strengthening twice a week.

Where Shepherd really stands out is in community engagement and voluntarism.

Those are among benefits the report notes in terms of contributing to better health out-

BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025 comes like reducing risk of disability, depression and dementia.

Johar said the data should help inform public policy and improve senior health. “The needs of seniors are different than some of the needs for other populations,” he said. “It’s important to look and see how our seniors are getting the care that they need.”

Some Utah specifics

While Utah has more geriatricians than it did, up 41%, it is No. 38 nationally, with 28.3 per 100,000 adults age 65 and older, while the U.S. average is nearly 40. And experts say the entire country could use more clinicians trained to provide care to older adults.

Fewer Utah older adults live in poverty, compared to most states, coming in at No. 5, but the poverty rate increased 34% between 2018 and 2023, to just over 1 in 12 senior adults.

Johar said poverty for seniors impacts access to healthy food, medications and safe living environments. It also impacts social interaction and transportation, leading to social isolation.

The report says Utah’s strength is its high rate of volunteer participation, while its particular challenge is a low flu vaccination rate. Older Utahns are also less apt to take advantage of assistance programs for which they qualify.

But for older adults, Utah is the very best on several measures: risk of social isolation, volunteering, use of hospice care at end of life, not smoking and not drinking excessively.

Unrelated to the report, Utah is looking at

13

what state government officials call “4 WISE Pillars:” wealth, independence, security and engagement for older adults.

Individual steps to health

There’s plenty to do to ensure your own well-being as you age.

Johar recommends older adults try to stick with one pharmacy to reduce the risk of drug interactions. “If you get your medications from different pharmacies, you get some mail order, some in person, some in the emergency room, it becomes a real issue. That’s why you hear physicians talk about electronic medical records a lot. That’s one of the things it helps.”

Staying connected is absolutely key, so mind your relationships. And it’s helpful to have friends and connections in many different age groups. People who only socialize with their peers are often left lonely if they outlive them.

Shepherd notes that she has friends across a range of ages and interests, which means she engages in many different activities that spark her interest, creativity and zest for life.

Sutherland Institute, a Salt Lake City-based public policy think tank, recently issued a report that notes religious participation provides many social benefits and contributes to mental health.

Johns Hopkins Medicine says there are four main ways to live long and prosper that are in the hands of individuals: • Do not smoke. Although your best plan to live longer is to adopt all four lifestyle factors, if you had to choose one, the re-

Tess Crowley, Deseret News

Bonnie Shepherd, front right, meets with friends Kim S., left, Jeanne Mackenzie, center, and Diane McMakin, right, for lunch at Great Harvest Bakery Cafe in Salt Lake City on Friday, June 6, 2025.

searchers say, ”this is it,” per the list.

• Maintain a healthy weight. One way to do that is to follow the next two pieces of advice.

• Get up and move. You’re supposed to get 30 minutes of activity a day most days.

And you can break it up into 10-minutes at a time if you want.

• Make healthy food choices. Johns Hopkins touts the Mediterranean-style diet, with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, healthy oils, fish, whole grains and olive oil for cooking.

And don’t forget to engage your brain.

Learn new things, meet new people, do things differently.

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14 BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

SPORTS

Playing smarter: How you can prevent some common pickleball injuries ‘It’s harder on the body than people think,’ said Whitney Meier, Orthopedic Center physical therapy coordinator at the University of Utah Lon Stalsberg and Jay Jorn play pickleball at Fairmont Park in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025.

Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

By Caitlin Keith Deseret News

Last year, Mike Green was playing pickleball when he tore both of his hamstrings.

After he got his hamstrings repaired, he then had to get one of his hips replaced, eventually returning to the pickleball courts this April.

“I’m still not near all the way back, you know, but I’m patient, and it’s gonna take a while,” Green said.

He regularly plays pickleball at the Fairmont Park pickleball courts and said that when he returned to playing, he was “slightly” scared of getting injured again.

“It’s just like anything else, you never know when you’re gonna get injured. I’m trying to, like, I go to the gym just about every day, try to do stuff to stay in shape,” he added.

Green is just one of many people who have gotten injured while playing pickleball, though his specific injury is more unique to pickleball players.

Whitney Meier, the Orthopedic Center physical therapy coordinator at the University of Utah, shared that the types of injuries common among pickleball players vary based on age group. She also shared that dynamic warmups and stretches can help prevent some of the common injuries brought on by the sport.

“When I’m hanging out with my older friends, it’s funny, be-

cause no one is not injured. They’re all working through something, and they play a heck of a lot more than me,” Meier said.

“It’s harder on the body than people think,” she added.

What are the most common pickleball injuries by age group?

Meier explained that older pickleball players “tend to have more of the traumatic injuries. Like more emergency room visits, wrist fractures, hip fractures from falls.”

It is also common to see what Meier referred to as “nontraumatic” injuries among younger age groups, including ankle and wrist sprains, Achilles tendinopathy and other overuse injuries.

BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

15

Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Brenda Koga plays pickleball at Fairmont Park in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025.

What are some benefits of playing pickleball?

Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Logan Lee and Drew Artrip play pickleball at Fairmont Park in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025.

A study from the Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine, titled “Increasing Incidents of Pickleball Injuries Presenting to U.S. Emergency Departments,” looked at the common types of injuries across different age groups.

The study looked at 1,100 pickleball injuries between Jan. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2022, from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. For each case, the demographic information, injury site and diagnosis were recorded. There were five different age groups: 0-17, 18-34, 35-64, 65-80, and 80-plus.

The most common cause of injury while playing pickleball for those in the 0- to 17-year-old age group was being hit by a paddle, with the most common injury location being the face.

For the 18- to 34-year-old age group, the most common cause of injury was a twist/inversion with sprains/strains as the most common type of injury.

Falls were the most common mechanism of injury for the 35- to 64-year-old age group, followed by twists and inversions.

For the older two age groups, 65-80 and 81-plus, falls made up 71.5% and 96% of pickleball injuries, respectively.

What are the most common pickleball injuries overall?

As the sport has grown, the study found a significant increase in pickleball-related injuries between 2013 and 2022 across all age groups. It also estimated that the number of pickleball-related injuries reported to emergency departments in the U.S. each year is 13,690.

Across all age groups, fractures were the most common diagnosis, covering 32.7% of the cases in the study, followed by strains/sprains with 30.8%.

Falls were the most common cause of injuries overall.

The most common fracture site across all age groups was the wrist, making up 29.2% of all fractures. The wrist was also the most injured body part overall.

Brenda Koga, who plays pickleball at Fairmont Park multiple times a week, said that often when she sees people get injured when playing, it’s because of something they already have an issue with, like a knee replacement.

She added that she has seen someone break their wrist and saw another person fall back and hit his head.

What can be done to help prevent pickleball injuries?

Meier explained why pickleball can be so hard on people’s bodies.

“Pickleball is interesting in the sense of, it’s just a lot of repetitiveness. And then there’s this rapid movement, where your body needs to kind of really slow you down quickly and push up quickly. It’s a quick game,” Meier said.

When asked if there are things that can be done to prevent these injuries, she said, “I’ll say a strong definite yes.” She added that dynamic warmups and stretching can help prevent some of the common injuries.

Meier said that typically she sees people not actually warming up — they hit a few “dink” shots with their paddle on court before they start really playing. But, according to Meier, that’s not enough. Meier added that she is active and plays multiple sports but pickleball is the hardest on her body.

She recommends doing a dynamic warmup for five to 10 minutes before going on the court. There are a lot of different ways this can be done.

“Working your arms, your shoulders, and just taking five to 10 minutes of kind of moving in all these multiplanar directions just to get ready to play, versus just going out and playing, would be helpful,” Meier said.

Koga said she tries to “play smart” in order to avoid injury.

“I have fallen before, but if I fall, I don’t try and stop myself.

I just go with it and roll,” she said.

She shared that she did sprain her wrist once while playing, but not from falling — it was from trying to stop herself from running into the wall.

Koga said she typically stretches at home before heading to the pickleball court and she often rides her bike to the courts, which helps her warm up.

Meier shared that shoes can also be important to safety in pickleball because different surfaces are different, and the right pair of shoes can make the impact of quick stops lighter.

Learning correct technique is also a way to help prevent pickleball injuries.

Meier shared that some friends advised her to move to the net sooner, and now her movements are less abrupt and she is moving more smoothly and safely.

“The social aspect of it is great, but then it keeps me moving. You know, good exercise, challenging,” Koga said when talking about why she likes playing pickleball.

Despite the risk of injury that comes with playing pickleball, or any sport, for that matter, Meier said there are some benefits. The social aspect of the game is a big one.

“When you play with people and you get to know them,” Green said, “it becomes a community.”

Lon Stalsberg, who also regularly plays at Fairmont Park, described the sport as “a very good social game.”

“You don’t really meet too many people that are not nice,” Stalsberg said.

There are also physical benefits. Meier said pickleball can help people, especially seniors, improve their balance. There are also cardiovascular benefits from being out and moving.

But she added once again that even though pickleball is great to play, “it’s good to prepare your body to play pickleball, too, so you can keep playing.”

“Pickleball is interesting in the sense of, it’s just a lot of repetitiveness.

And then there’s this rapid movement, where your body needs to kind of really slow you down quickly and push up quickly.

It’s a quick game.”

16 BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

FAMILY

95-year-old identical twins in Kaysville share life advice

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Twin sisters Verla Starkey, left, and Merla Swenson look at a book of their family history at their home in Kaysville on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025.

By Ivy Farguheson KSL.com

Verla Starkey and Merla Swenson like to say they are a part of a do-it-yourself family.

This started during the Great Depression in the 1930s when the now 95-year-old identical twins were living in Ogden and started dressing alike to save their family some money on clothing.

Their father brought home flour sacks from work, and their mother used the sacks as material for their clothing — pajamas, hats, and anything else — and the young girls learned the importance of sewing their own clothes.

Taking care of things and including taking care of themselves not only helped to save money but was mentally stimulating, provided something to be proud about and a sense of achievement.

And at 95 years old — well, really 95-anda-half, as they are quick to remind you — being around to tell their stories is definitely a

sense of achievement, one they believe others can acquire, as well.

“I like to brag in my old age. It’s because I’ve earned it. Well, I’m not ready to fly over the moon yet,” said Swenson. “As part of a do-it-yourself family, we had a lot of togetherness and we ate healthy and that plays a part of living a long life. But you also have to keep learning.”

“And I think it helps that we live together,” Starkey said. “We talk and laugh and share stories. We laugh. All that helps.”

Over 95 years, the twins have seen a lot of changes in Utah, in the West and in America.

They were born in 1930 — 10 years after women got the right to vote — and lived in a world where women got married at a young age, 18 or 19 years old. Babies soon followed, as was the norm in the late 1940s, early 1950s, they said.

They both remembered the day World War II ended, the cheers and singing in the streets and the excitement that it was finally over. They also experienced a change in

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Twin sisters Merla Swensen and Verla Starkey are pictured at their home in Kaysville on Aug. 20, 2025.

BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Twin sisters Merla Swensen and Verla Starkey are pictured in two photographs; one at age 11 and the other at age 95. Swensen and Starkey currently live together with their daughters in Kaysville on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025.

together

work culture in America, with Starkey moving along with her husband and children to 13 cities in nine states, following the work wherever it took them.

Overall, things were a lot quieter and moved a lot slower decades ago, but this didn’t stop them from engaging in some hobbies, another suggestion they have for anyone wanting to live at least 95 years.

They played the piano and sang in high school, with their peers telling them they had beautiful voices.

Swenson began to paint, originally in oils and eventually watercolors. Her work is displayed throughout her home for any visitor to see and spark a conversation about her motivation and her technique.

She took classes to increase her painting skills and eventually shared her knowledge with her sister, Verla, during a camping trip.

“It was the most exciting week I think I’ve ever had,” she said. “I started to look at the world a different way. I started to notice the shape and color of rocks and the branches on trees. ... I recommend anyone paint things outdoors and their life will change.”

A curiosity of the world around them is what they believe has helped keep them around for 95 years. Both sisters, as well as members of their families, spoke about how the twins’ interest in life has brought them a desire to talk and think about what is going on around them.

The identical twins both say having a

healthy diet is important for living a long life. But a close relationship with family is right up there as well.

They both say they have a very close family. They go camping together. They call each other regularly. They have children who visit and take care of them.

When Swenson’s husband died, she was living alone, but was deteriorating rapidly, her family said. Starkey then suggested to her sister that she move in with her in Kaysville, in a house Starkey has lived in for the last 32 years.

Swenson made the move and everyone — children, nieces, local visitors and Starkey — say she is back to the woman they knew.

Together, she and her sister could talk about the good old days, laugh together, and also tease each other. In other words, they can be their happy selves.

“I don’t know how many times I heard Verla say, ‘I’m happy.’ ... It’s this focus on the positive and then growing up in the Depression where you learn how to make your own clothes out of flour sacks that you learn you can really get through anything, especially if you were doing it together,” said Shala Dendler, a hospice chaplain who visits the twins.

Starkey confirmed this sense of happiness.

“I could go right now and I’d be happy,” she said.

“We, the two of us, have done a lot. And I’m not through,” Swenson said.

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18 BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

HEALTH

AARP calls Salt Lake County age-friendly.

What does that mean?

About 700 communities and states have the designation

By Lois M. Collins Deseret News

AARP has added Salt Lake County to its Network of Age-Friendly Communities. That opens the door to technical assistance, funding and other resources from the national organization as the county tackles policy, planning and building to meet the needs of a growing aging population.

It’s the first community so designated in Utah, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson said at a news conference May 7 at the Millcreek Senior Center, which is co-located with a library and a recreation center.

Wilson hailed the county’s efforts to help older adults in multiple ways, from the Meals on Wheels program to senior centers that integrate services with recreation programs in one location.

When co-location was first considered, she said, there was robust discussion among the county council members, of which she was one at the time.

The age-friendly puzzle

There are a lot of pieces to being age-friendly and a great deal of planning and projecting the future are involved, she and Alan Ormsby, state director of AARP, agreed — including focusing on important aspects like making neighborhoods walkable and ensuring there are affordable housing options, among others.

“Anything that makes life better for older adults makes it better for anyone in a community,” Ormsby said.

Ormsby added there have been efforts to get an age-friendly AARP designation in Utah for a long time, so the announcement is exciting. Besides helping to support local organizations that give time and energy to bolstering older adults, the national group can be tapped for expertise with forward-looking planning, he told Deseret News. AARP can provide “guidance, support and monetary things” to help Salt Lake County’s age-friendly efforts.

There are roughly 700 AARP-designated age-friendly states and communities in the United States.

Ryan Anderson, who is the program manager of Municipal Services and Regional Planning, actually oversaw the application. She said her program will work closely with Salt Lake County Aging and Adult Services over the next couple of years to do a needs assessment and create an action plan, which will be implemented in the following two years of a four-year effort.

The work will include looking at what’s working to allow people to age well while staying in their communities and what services, policies, features or other things need to change or be added.

Salt Lake County’s Aging and Adult Services — its director, Paul Leggett, emceed the announcement — also has a contract with the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah to look at aging issues and services.

A community that is age-friendly has to consider how to build a community that provides access to services, meeting transportation needs and has affordable housing, among other factors, Anderson said.

On its website, AARP says the network “serves as a catalyst to educate local leaders (both elected officials and engaged residents) and encourage them to implement the types of changes that make communities more livable for people of all ages, especially older adults.”

Brice Tucker, Deseret News

Susanne Garrett reads while exercising at the Millcreek Community Center in Millcreek on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. Salt Lake County is the first community in Utah to be designated an AARP Age-Friendly Community.

To get the designation, a community’s elected leaders have to commit to the goal of helping older adults flourish.

After earning a place in the network, AARP reports that “age-friendly initiatives are catalyzing local policy change. And 73% of member communities achieved a change in public policy, most often by integrating an ‘age-friendly lens’ into community planning.”

The Millcreek center

The Millcreek senior center was a natural location for the announcement, given its design, which integrates people of all ages in various activities within the building.

Outside the room where the press conference was held, a group of older adult pals were chatting and laughing. It’s a regular routine for them after their Monday-Wednesday-Friday enhanced fitness class, they told Deseret News. They all met in the class, but the friendships spill well beyond the senior center door.

They said they help each other out and sometimes get together outside of the center. One might drive another to a doctor’s appointment. They’re an informal referral service, recommending good plumbers and doctors. And when one of them is downsizing, it’s the easiest thing in the world to bring a few items you

don’t want and see if anyone in the group wants them.

“You can come visit your tray,” one of them jokes, while another adds that they celebrate each others’ birthdays and that there are some other groups that meet on different days for lunch. The center is a social hub for lots of older adults, who find it easy to make friends who share their interests, given the varied programming.

There’s easy banter among the women — and it isn’t all just women most days — but they agree that a senior center is a great place for someone who’s new to the area and older to make friends and stay connected. Plus they look out for each other, noticing when someone is missing from the class and checking up to see that all is well.

Sometimes the group has 16 members visiting after class and they come from all over the county, not just the Millcreek neighborhood.

Clearly visible above that group gathered in the Evergreen Cafe (the center is located on Evergreen Avenue), older adults could be seen on a walking track. The senior center side hosts activities that range from art classes to exercise classes, meals and a variety of other programs and events.

The center is age-friendly — and so is Salt Lake County.

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BETTER WITH AGE | SEPTEMBER 2025

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