Dementia and COVID-19 among Older African American Adults: A Scoping Review of Healthcare Access and Resources.

African American/Black communities comprise 12.2% of the U.S. population, with a COVID-19 infection rate of more than 18% and marginal access to healthcare services. This scoping review synthesizes the emerging evidence on healthcare accessibility among older African American adult communities with dementia and COVID-19, as well as the resource requirements for this population during the pandemic. Searches of different databases for empirical studies and other sources on dementia and COVID-19 among older African American adults yielded 13 studies that met the following inclusion criteria: (a) focus on dementia and COVID-19, (b) sampled older African American adults, (c) investigated healthcare accessibility and resources, and (d) published between 2019 and 2022. Following the initial selection of the studies, eight were selected for relevance based on the Population, Concept, and Context (PCC) inclusion and exclusion criteria. Thematic analysis indicated that older African Americans with dementia and COVID-19 experienced longer delays in accessing timely healthcare, including transportation, intensive care units (ICUs), and mechanical ventilation. They also had reduced healthcare resources associated with a lack of health insurance, low financial resources, and an increased length of hospital stay, which further aggravated the negative effects of comorbid dementia and COVID-19 infections. Evidence showed that racial and age disparities affected older African American adults with dementia and COVID-19, resulting in lower healthcare access and marginal resources. This is consistent with historical and systemic inequities in meeting the healthcare needs of people of color in the United States, which was compounded for older African Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remote Work Support Needs of Employees with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Poland: Perspectives of Individuals with Autism and Their Coworkers.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: With remote work becoming more common across industries, employees with autism may experience different work support needs from neurotypical peers. However, the specific remote work needs of this group of employees are underexplored in the literature. We aim to propose ways to assess workplace digital adaptation needs for individuals with autism and a framework for communicating these needs to employers. METHODS: This qualitative study included interviews with 13 Polish business professionals, including coworkers and/or supervisors of employees with autism (n = 9) and female employees with autism (n = 4), about their remote work support needs. Participants responded to semi-structured interview questions identifying advantages and risk factors associated with remote work for this specific group of employees. RESULTS: Participants reported advantages of remote work, such as limiting sensory overload and intensive interpersonal contacts, indirect interpersonal communications, flexible work hours, and eliminating the need to travel to work. Participants also reported challenges of remote work, such as reducing wanted or helpful social contacts, engaging in direct electronic communications, limiting opportunities to learn from other employees, and managing work-life balance. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest a need for an autism-inclusive digitalized remote work design customized to the unique needs of employees on the autism spectrum. Business managers would be key partners in the design of autism-inclusive digitalized remote work systems. Additional research is needed with larger and more diverse samples of employees with autism.

Online Leisure Activities for Sustained Mental Health Well-being in Older Adults with COVID-19 Mitigation

Older adults (OA) experience psychosocial distress from the COVID-19 pandemic mitigations. While their participation in leisure and recreation activities (LRA) would be ameliorating, we do not know how LRA OA engages for their mental health (MH) well-being with COVID-19 mitigation. This scoping review aimed to trend the evidence on the types of LRA OA engage for their MH well-being across the young-old continuum (60-69 years) through to older-old (80 years and above) in the COVID-19 pandemic. We searched the following electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane, JBI-ES, and Epistemonicos for LRA studies by OA with COVID-19 mitigation. To be included, we considered empirical articles published in English on LRA of OA 55+ years-old. Another criterion required articles describing those activities' qualities and the impact of LRA on MH and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. We resulted in seven empirical studies, two of which implemented in the USA and one from the USA and Canada, Spain, Israel, and Japan. Findings following narrative synthesis revealed trending evidence on OA to engage in online LRA for social, cognitive /intellectual, and emotional health. Leisure-time physical activity reduced negative MH symptoms as anxiety and depression in OA under COVID-19 threat. In conclusion, the present review's trending evidence suggests that OA engagement in social, physical, mental, and cognitive LRA enhanced their MH and overall well-being. Activities delivered by way of the Internet and television provided a cluster of beneficial opportunities for the OA mental health needs under the COVID-19 pandemic.

Older Adults' Mental Health Through Leisure Activities During COVID-19: A Scoping Review.

Older adults are at high risk for mental health distress due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. This scoping review aimed to map emerging evidence on the types of leisure and recreation activities (LRA) adults, 60 years and older, are engaged in for their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. We identified 10 studies on LRA for mental health by older adults with COVID-19 mitigation from a search of the following databases: Medline/PubMed, Excerpta Medica database (EMBASE), Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, JBI Evidence Synthesis, and Epistemonicos. A narrative synthesis of the data revealed age cohorts of young-old (60-69 years) and middle-old (70-79 years) engaging mainly in online LRA for mental health compared to the older-old adults (80 years and older). The middle-old (70-79 years) and older-old adults (80-89 years) engaged in more physical LRA for mental health compared to the younger-old adults. Across age cohorts, the older adults engaged in social connectedness LRA for mental health wellbeing. COVID-19-safe LRA mental health support interventions for older adults should be tailored to their age cohort predispositions for optimal benefit.