Introduction: Increased attention has focused on the importance of time spent by ageing adults in volunteering. The aim of this systematic review was to analyse literature exploring the relationship between time spent volunteering and quality of life for adults over the age of 50 years. Method: Electronic searches of nine databases located relevant articles involving adults over the age of 50 in volunteering activities that included psychological, physical and social quality of life domains. The quality of the selected articles was assessed and data extracted using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Results: Of the 65 articles retrieved, 22 were reviewed and eight included in the final review. Studies included one randomised controlled trial, one cross-sectional and six longitudinal studies. Levels of time spent volunteering by participants within the studies varied considerably. Articles retrieved reported positive quality of life outcomes including increases in life satisfaction, self-esteem and social support and a slowed functional decline. Conclusion: Volunteering is identified as an important occupation for adults over the age of 50, although the relationship between time spent volunteering and the impact on quality of life outcomes is still not fully understood. Future research is required to better understand the impact of time spent volunteering on quality of life.

Sarcasm annotation extends beyond linguistic expertise, and often involves cultural context. This paper presents our first-of-its-kind study that deals with impact of cultural differences on the quality of sarcasm annotation. For this study, we consider the case of American text and Indian annotators. For two sarcasmlabeled datasets of American tweets and discussion forum posts that have been annotated by American annotators, we obtain annotations from Indian annotators. Our Indian annotators agree with each other more than their American counterparts, and face difficulties in case of unfamiliar situations and named entities. However, these difficulties in sarcasm annotation result in statistically insignificant degradation in sarcasm classification. We also show that these disagreements between annotators can be predicted using textual properties. Although the current study is limited to two annotators and one culture pair, our paper opens up a novel direction in evaluation of the quality of sarcasm annotation, and the impact of this quality on sarcasm classification. This study forms a stepping stone towards systematic evaluation of quality of these datasets annotated by non-native annotators, and can be extended to other culture combinations.

Background/aim Occupational therapists concern themselves with understanding engagement in everyday activity as a mode of facilitating wellbeing. However, there appears to be little consensus within the literature as to how engagement in meaningful activities contributes to wellbeing. Currently, there are no published evidence‐based frameworks for wellbeing to support occupational therapy practitioners to address wellbeing with clients. The purpose of the study was to establish an evidence‐based contemporary framework, domains and descriptive statements defining occupational wellbeing. Methods A multiphase, exploratory sequential mixed methods design, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used. Two phases were identified for data collection. The first phase involved exploration of the domains of occupational wellbeing, through conducting a literature review and two focus groups. The Delphi technique was employed in the second phase to refine and corroborate the domains of occupational wellbeing with an expert panel. Results Six new domains of occupational wellbeing were generated in the first phase of the study, namely: Competence, autonomy, contentment and pleasure, identity, hope and belonging. In the second phase, five out of the six domains reached a consensus level of 70% or more. Hope was the only domain not to reach consensus. Conclusion The framework for occupational wellbeing produced by this study was created using evidence‐based, replicable methodology and garnered support from a highly regarded expert key informant group of occupational therapy and occupational science academics. Further exploration to determine whether there is widespread support and applicability for these domains with normative and vulnerable population groups is required.