Staying healthy while following social distancing protocols is of great importance to older adults due to increased risk of serious complications from COVID-19. Mild to moderate physical activity ...improves immune system responses to viral respiratory infections. Additionally, social engagement has cumulative health protective benefits across the lifespan. At present, active and social recreation opportunities have been drastically reduced or disbanded due to group size limitations, stay-at-home orders, and reductions in services and facilities. As a result, community dwelling older adults are homebound and need alternative exercise and social opportunities to maintain their health during this time. Leisure professionals can promote physical activity and social well-being among older adults by increasing home-based opportunities, including offering additional online leisure services, opportunities for volunteerism, and social interactions.
Hematopoietic clones harboring specific mutations may expand over time. However, it remains unclear how different cellular stressors influence this expansion. Here we characterize clonal ...hematopoiesis after two different cellular stressors: cytotoxic therapy and hematopoietic transplantation. Cytotoxic therapy results in the expansion of clones carrying mutations in DNA damage response genes, including TP53 and PPM1D. Analyses of sorted populations show that these clones are typically multilineage and myeloid-biased. Following autologous transplantation, most clones persist with stable chimerism. However, DNMT3A mutant clones often expand, while PPM1D mutant clones often decrease in size. To assess the leukemic potential of these expanded clones, we genotyped 134 t-AML/t-MDS samples. Mutations in non-TP53 DNA damage response genes are infrequent in t-AML/t-MDS despite several being commonly identified after cytotoxic therapy. These data suggest that different hematopoietic stressors promote the expansion of distinct long-lived clones, carrying specific mutations, whose leukemic potential depends partially on the mutations they harbor.
Abstract
Background and Objectives
Anecdotal evidence and references to boredom appear frequently in mass media, but only a few studies directly examine the phenomenon of boredom, and existing ...literature within the context of leisure has primarily focused on adolescents. Social isolation and loneliness often intertwine with boredom, and chronic conditions are major factors that increase the risk of experiencing boredom in later life. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of boredom among older adults and assess the existing literature to gain a more holistic understanding of boredom and how it has been studied among older adults in the context of leisure.
Research Design and Methods
Following the PRISMA guidelines, this study gathered literature from 5 electronic databases through December 2022. This systematic review investigated both qualitative and quantitative evidence, and standardized data extraction and study quality assessments were conducted.
Results
A comprehensive search initially revealed 2,757 potentially relevant articles, 8 of which met the full inclusion criteria. Three studies investigated the phenomenon of leisure-boredom, and 5 studies assessed the experience of boredom in general and its relationship with leisure engagement. A majority of the studies, especially ones that examined older adults’ experience of overall boredom experience, lacked a thorough description of the phenomenon and did not use reliable and/or valid measurements.
Discussion and Implications
Findings from 8 articles offer insights into boredom; however, the discussion examines the limitations of these studies and reasons why studying boredom is important. We also speculate as to why little research has addressed leisure boredom among older adults and propose a research agenda for increasing our understanding of the ways older adults experience boredom, the effects boredom has on health and well-being, and how boredom can be alleviated and/or managed in the context of leisure.
Falls among older adults can lead to severe physical and psychological consequences. However, whether leisure participation changes after falling is not clear. We investigated whether falls resulted ...in reduced leisure participation in terms of duration, number, and intensity among older adults. Secondary data from the Health and Retirement Study and the Consumption and Activities Mail Survey (n = 1163) were analyzed. The results showed falls did not predict future leisure participation. Female, white, higher education, fewer functional limitations, and good balance were significant predictors of leisure participation at follow-up. Being white also predicted a significant decline in total number of leisure activities from baseline to follow-up, whereas higher education protected older adults from a significant reduction in total intensity of leisure activity. Our findings suggest falls may not directly affect leisure participation, but its risk factors, such as demographics, functional limitations, and balance, have a direct impact on leisure participation.
There is substantial research on the constraint negotiation of leisure, including research on leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and some research exploring different aspects that might affect the ...constraint negotiation process, including self-efficacy and identity. However, despite longstanding conceptualization and theory, there is a lack of empirical research on the role of facilitators in the constraint negotiation process. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of facilitators in the constraint negotiation of LTPA in a national sample of 1,207 middle-aged and older adults. Path analysis results indicated that the relationship between facilitators and LTPA was fully mediated by constraint and negotiation. These findings provide one of the first empirical studies of facilitators in the constraint negotiation of LTPA and have practical implications for LTPA programming in community settings.
In the second of a two-part article honoring 50 years of publication for the Journal of Leisure Research, Schmalz et al provide an inside look at creative approaches to collaborative research as an ...avenue to furthering leisure scholarship. Most leisure studies scholars realize the importance of other academic perspectives in understanding leisure behavior as part of the human condition. Most, if not all, doctoral programs in the US require that students complete a number of courses outside of the major department in either a loosely linked "collateral" area or a more formalized, approved "minor." The cross-disciplinary training demanded by graduate curricula is fitting as much leisure research draws on theories, frameworks, models, and constructs that find their roots in other fields.
With the graying workforce worldwide, identifying factors that facilitate older workers’ health is critically important. We examined whether gardening mitigates the relationship of work–family ...conflict with disability, chronic conditions, depressive symptoms, and self-rated health among older workers. We drew a subsample of older workers aged 55 years and above from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 1,598). Our results indicate that the relationships of work-to-family conflict at baseline with disability and with poorer self-rated health at a 2-year follow-up were stronger for those who gardened less than those who gardened more. No significant interaction was found between family-to-work conflict and gardening in predicting the health outcomes. This study is the first to show that gardening may have a protective effect against the adverse impact of work-to-family conflict on older workers’ health.
Purpose
Cancer symptoms and the side effects of its treatment can increase the risk of falling among older adults with cancer. This study aimed to identify predictors of falling and recurrent falls ...among community-dwelling older adults with cancer over a 2-year period.
Methods
Data from the Health and Retirement Study were used (
N
= 1,630) in this study. The sample had a mean age of 75 years and was mostly female (53 %) and white (89 %). Descriptive analyses, correlation analyses, and logistic regressions were used to analyze the data.
Results
The results showed that functional limitations (OR = 1.13, 95 % CI = 1.03–1.24), the full-tandem stance (OR = 1.48, 95 % CI = 1.01–2.16), and self-reported difficulties with balance (OR = 1.50, 95 % CI = 1.23–1.83) at time 1 were significant predictors of falling at time 2. Only difficulties with self-reported balance (OR = 1.84, 95 % CI = 1.44–2.36) at time 1 were found to be a predictor of recurrent falls at time 2.
Conclusions
The consequences of falling can complicate the course of cancer treatment. Measures of functional limitations and balance have the potential to be quick and useful clinical tools to detect falling among seniors with cancer living in communities.
Sport participation can play a key role in older adults’ successful aging as it provides an enjoyable opportunity for leisure-time physical activity. Research focusing on the benefits of sport ...participation in later life and facilitators for involvement has been increasing in the past several years. Drawing on the socioecological model, this study investigated select socioecological factors that predict older adults’ sport participation from a holistic perspective. An online survey provided quantitative data from 1203 adults aged 50 and older across the United States. Results from logistic regression analyses showed that personal characteristics, individual behavior, environment/policy, and life course effects were significant predictors of sport participation in later life. The findings in this study enhance our understanding of factors related to older adults’ sport participation and are also of value to practitioners seeking to promote sport participation among older adults.
It has been almost two years since the Journal of Leisure Research resumed publication, and we have grown and evolved during that time. It is apropos that we introduce our two special relaunch issues ...during this year, which marks the 50th volume of JLR. While JLR officially launched in 1968, regular publication of a full volume of the journal began in 1969. As such, 2019 can also be considered a hallmark year for the Journal of Leisure Research. During the past two years we have revised our aims and scope to be more inclusive of leisure-related topics, including recreation, parks, tourism, events, and sport. Broadening our scope, while keeping leisure a central theme, is important to attract the most cutting-edge research and knowledge being generated in our field and helps to reestablish JLR as a leading scholarly research journal with an international focus. This special issue is a celebration of the return of JLR and encompasses articles that focus on trends and issues of interest and concern in our field. The articles in this special issue represent an array of topics that address important current issues, including the innate need for nature, the effectiveness of park prescriptions, the value of nostalgia in leisure experiences, and the case for scholarship on race in the context of leisure. Further, Dustin and colleagues contemplate how effective our academic curricula are at developing engaged citizens who act as change agents in their communities, and Parr and Schmalz assert that several issues (e.g., curriculum changes, faculty qualifications, academic department name changes) may make our field's theory and philosophy vulnerable to being appropriated by researchers in related disciplines. They recommend ways we should change to enhance our relevancy in higher education and research. The following are some highlights of the articles from this special issue. The authors position their articles as addressing more critical social, cultural, and educational issues that may help our field enhance our relevance.
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