Emotional and cognitive health correlates of leisure activities in older Latino and Caucasian women

Abstract

This study examined differences in the frequency of leisure activity participation and relationships to depressive symptom burden and cognition in Latino and Caucasian women. Cross-sectional data were obtained from a demographically matched subsample of Latino and Caucasian (n = 113 each) postmenopausal women (age ≥60 years), interviewed in 2004–2006 for a multiethnic cohort study of successful aging in San Diego County. Frequencies of engagement in 16 leisure activities and associations between objective cognitive performance and depressive symptom burden by ethnicity were identified using bivariate and linear regression, adjusted for physical functioning and demographic covariates. Compared to Caucasian women, Latinas were significantly more likely to be caregivers and used computers less often. Engaging in organized social activity was associated with fewer depressive symptoms in both groups. Listening to the radio was positively correlated with lower depressive symptom burden for Latinas and better cognitive functioning in Caucasians. Cognitive functioning was better in Latinas who read and did puzzles. Housework was negatively associated with Latinas' emotional health and Caucasians' cognitive functioning. Latino and Caucasian women participate in different patterns of leisure activities. Additionally, ethnicity significantly affects the relationship between leisure activities and both emotional and cognitive health.

Keywords:

• depression
• cognition
• elderly
• Hispanic
• leisure activities

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Keith E. Whitfield, PhD, for his review of this manuscript; Sara Kreikebaum, MPH, public health graduate student, for her early contribution; Ruth Warre, PhD, for assistance with manuscript preparation. The authors also thank the WHI investigators and staff for their dedication an_d the study participants for making the program possible. A listing of WHI investigators can be found at http://www.whiscience.org/publications/WHI_investigators_shortlist.pdf. This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (T32 MH19934-16) and the UCSD Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging. The authors would also like to acknowledge the additional support of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institute of Mental Health (P30 NH080002-01, T32 MH019934). The WHI program is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through contracts N01WH22110, 24152, 32100-2, 32105-6, 32108-9, 32111-13, 32115, 32118-32119, 32122, 42107-26, 42129-32, and 44221.