BACKGROUND:Many studies have shown that a relationship exists between quality of life (QoL) and resilience in breast cancer patients, but few studies present information on the nature of this relationship of resilience on QoL. Our aim was to examine the relationship between resilience and quality of life in breast cancer patients.METHODS:QoL was measured in 218 consequent breast cancer patients, with EORTC - QLQ Core 30 questionnaire, and EORTC QLQ-BR23. The resilience was measured with Connor Davidson Resilience Scale.RESULTS:The global quality of life was positively correlated with the levels of resilience (R = 0.39 p < 0.001). All functional scales (physical, role, emotional, cognitive and social functioning was in a positive correlation with resilience. The symptoms severity (fatigue, nausea and vomitus, pain, dyspnea, insomnia, appetite loss, constipation, diarrhea, financial difficulties) was in negative correlation with resilience. Less resilient breast cancer patients reported worse body image and future perspective and suffered from more severe adverse effects of systemic therapy, and arm/breast symptoms.CONCLUSION:Our findings show that psychological resilience affects different aspects of health-related quality of life. More resilient patients have significantly better quality of life in almost all aspects of QoL.

OBJECTIVE:A significant number of breast cancer patients, during their life with the diagnosis, experience emotional distress in the form of depression and anxiety. Psychological resilience is the ability of a person to protect his/her mental health when faced with adverse circumstances such as the cancer diagnosis. This study aims to assess the resilience in breast cancer patients and to explore whether depression affects the resilience.MATERIAL AND METHODS:Two hundred eighteen (218) women, treated for early breast cancer responded to Connor - Davidson Resilience Scale and Hospital Depression and Anxiety Scale, in order to assess the level of psychological resilience and the level of depression.RESULTS:There is a significant negative correlation between depression and resilience in our sample (r = - 0.562, p < 0.001). Individuals with higher levels of depression have lower levels of psychological resilience. There is no statistically significant correlation between the ages of the participants; time passed since diagnosis, cancer stage and resilience levels.CONCLUSION:This study shows that patients who are less depressed have higher levels of resilience and that psychological resilience may independently contribute to lower levels of depression among breast cancer patients. The level of psychological resilience may be a protective factor for depression and psychological distress.

Background: This study aimed to assess the basic red blood cell variables and hematological indices in children and adolescents and analyze the differences regarding age and sex. Methods: Overall, 320 young participants, age 8 to 18 yr, were enrolled at Laboratory of Sport’s Medicine, Medical Faculty, Skopje, Macedonia in 2016. Capillary blood samples were drawn and following hematologic parameters were measured: the red blood cell count (RBC), hemoglobin concentration (Hb), hematocrit level (Hct) and hematological indexes: mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean hemoglobin concentration (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and red cell distribution width (RDW). Results: RBC variables in male group showed high statistical level of significance between age different groups (P=0.001) for all studied parameters except MCHC (P=0.423) and RDW (P=0.174). ANOVA test and multivariate tests in female group showed that there was no significant difference for all hematological parameters between age different groups. Regarding the sex differences, male participants had significantly higher red blood count (P<0.001), hemoglobin content (P<0.001) and hematocrit (P<0.001). Conclusion: Hematological parameters in adolescent as inhomogeneous population are not quantified sufficiently, especially hematological indices. RBC variables, regardless of the age, differ very much between male and female examinees, in favor of the male examinees. Hematological indices were insignificantly higher in males. Regarding the age of examinees, RBC variables showed significant inter-groups differences only within male adolescents. While with girls, ages span 8 to 18 yr, we did not find significant differences for most of the hematological variables.

Aim:This study aims to analyze body composition in adult male football players and its changes during adulthood.Methods:Adult male football players (n=942, mean age 24.11 ±4.69y), all members of national competitive clubs from Macedonia were included in the study. The absolute and the relative body components were calculated: lean body mass (LBMkg), muscle mass (MMkg; MM%), bone mass (BMkg; BM%) and fat components (FMkg; FM%), using the anthropometric protocol by Matiegka.Results:Mean values of anthropometric measures for all included participants were as follows: height=178.39±6.11cm; weight=77.02±7.57; LBM=65.65±6.38; MM%=53.23±2.78; BM%=17.05±1.27; FM%=14.58±1.48. Descriptive statistics for these parameters was made for age specific groups.Conclusions:The results obtained could be used as reference values for adult football players in Republic of Macedonia. In the examined age span (18-35 years) a slight increase of absolute values of all three body components has been registered with advancing age. The most significant increase in the absolute values was registered for the muscle component, followed by the fat and bone components, respectively. Regarding the relative values (%), the muscle and the fat components showed an equally slight positive correlation with the age increase of 1 year, whilst the bone component decreased with advancing age.