The program, launched in 2012 currently has 100 elderly participants.

In a large federal research effort, the Framingham study, Dr. Wood found that 12 percent of the elderly participants had worrisome levels.

The American Samoa Nutrition Assistance Program serves low-income elderly, blind or disabled participants.

A 1997 study published in Annals of Neurology followed 5,386 elderly participants in Rotterdam.

They found that elderly participants who received group music lessons increased their levels of human growth hormone (hGH).

As with many oral history projects, a founding impulse was the desire to preserve the memories of elderly participants before they died.

More than a third of the elderly participants had never been vaccinated against pneumonia, a step that could prevent nearly 10,000 deaths a year.

The students interviewed the elderly participants in the program and then wrote oral histories about them with the help of Bob Donath, a White Plains writer.

Given that many of the elderly participants live alone but are spry, Dr. Maurer likes to quip, "If the program fails, it can always become a dating service."

Researchers followed elderly participants in the ongoing Framingham Heart Study for up to 17 years to explore late-life depression and dementia.