Objectives: Chemotherapy induces cognitive impairments including memory impairment attention deficit and executive dysfunction in patients with breast cancer (BC) during or after chemotherapy. Previous studies identified brain structural and functional changes in BC patients receiving chemotherapy; however, there are no studies assessing functional connectivity (FC) between homotopic brain regions in BC patients using a voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) method. In the present study, we explored cognitive function and whole brain homotopic FC in BC patients receiving chemotherapy compared with healthy controls using the VMHC method. Methods: The present cross-sectional study included 35 premenopausal women with breast cancer who received chemotherapy, as well as 32 age-and sex-matched healthy controls (HC). All subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, which measured homotopic brain FC, and cognitive neuropsychological assessments evaluating attention, memory, and executive function domains. Results: The BC group had lower VMHC than the HC group in the cingulated posterior, insular and postcentral regions. No region exhibited higher VMHC in the BC group than in HC group. Correlation analysis in the BC group indicated that VMHC values in the cingulated posterior were significantly correlated with executive function tests, and that the VMHC values in the insular were significantly correlated with memory tests. Conclusion: The present study showed that VMHC decreased in different brain regions including cingulated posterior, insular and postcentral regions. A significant correlation was observed between the VMHC values in the brain regions and neuropsychological tests. These results suggested that changes in VMHC values in different brain regions may underlie cognitive changes in BC patients receiving chemotherapy.

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Background: Nurses displayed low levels of subjective well-being and high turnover intention. How to enhance the subjective well-being and decrease the turnover rate of nurses is of great importance. However, little is known about whether work engagement mediates between character strengths and subjective well-being. The study aims to explore character strengths, work engagement and subjective well-being in nurses, and to determine whether work engagement plays a mediating role between the relationship. Material and Methods: From December 2017 to December 2018, 450 Chinese registered nurses completed the character strengths scale, work engagement scale, and subjective well-being scale. The relationship between study variables was tested by Pearson correlation. The mediating effect of work engagement was tested by the bootstrap method. Results: The results indicated the following: (1) the 4 elements of character strengths and work engagement were significantly and positively correlated with subjective well-being; (2) character strengths could significantly predict both work engagement and subjective well-being; (3) work engagement played a mediating role in this relationship. Conclusions: Character strengths affect subjective well-being in Chinese registered nurses, and work engagement plays a mediating variable among the relations. Therefore, nurses are encouraged to foster their character strengths and improve their level of work engagement for their subjective well-being. Following the results, the study recommends that nursing managers be aware of the importance of using character strengths in nursing work, taking actions to excavate nurses' character strengths and encouraging nurses to use character strengths in clinical work to promote engagement and well-being. In the meantime, interventions to improve the level of subjective well-being based on nurses' character strengths should be considered. Med Pr. 2022;73(4):295-304

Purpose: Subjective well-being is a key factor affecting the overall quality of life of cancer patients. The aim of this study was to provide information on improving the level of happiness to breast cancer patients by exploring the relationships among character strengths, perceived social support and subjective well-being. Methods: A total of 181 breast cancer patients were enrolled. Participants completed a general information questionnaire, the values in action inventory of strengths questionnaire, the perceived social support scale questionnaire, and the index of well-being questionnaire. Results: The subjective well-being and perceived social support of breast cancer patients were positively correlated with their character strengths (r = 0.167-0.630, all P < 0.05). Perceived social support played a mediating role between the four traits of character strength and subjective well-being. The percentages of the mediating effects that comprised the total effects were 26.3% for perceptual—self-focused, 26.5% for perceptual—other-focused, 23.5% for rational—self-focused, and 23.7% for rational—other-focused. Conclusion: Breast cancer patients’ subjective well-being can be improved by their character strengths and high levels of perceived social support.