Sense of coherence and coping strategies: How they influence quality of life in Iranian women with breast cancer.

AIM: To investigate the mediation/moderation effect between Coping Behaviors (CBs) and Sense of Coherence (SOC) in the prediction of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in breast cancer patients. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. METHODS: A total of 221 patients were included in this study. The 13-item Orientation to Life Questionnaire, Brief COPE and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast were investigated. Pearson's correlation coefficient and mediation/moderation analysis were performed. RESULTS: Significant correlations were observed for SOC, active coping, acceptance, positive reframing (PR), planning, use of emotional support (UES), use of instrumental support, behaviour disengagement and self-blame with HRQoL. Except for planning and acceptance, SOC partially mediated the CBs' effect on HRQoL. The UES and PR's effects on HRQoL were significant at lower SOC levels and diminished at higher SOC levels. CONCLUSION: Practitioners can incorporate SOC and adaptive CBs, including PR and UES, into the rehabilitation programmes to improve HRQoL in patients.

Prevalence of Cognitive Disorders in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythromatosus; a Cross-sectional Study in Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital, Tehran, Iran.

BACKGROUND: Neuropsychological manifestations are present in 60% of patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) among which cognitive dysfunction is the most common. This study aims to determine the prevalence of cognitive disorders in SLE patients, and the relationship between cognitive disorder domains and depression and anxiety. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 54 patients with SLE and 48 healthy subjects were included. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clock Drawing Test (CDT) and Trail Making Test part A (TMT-A) were used to screen for cognitive impairments. All subjects were evaluated with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) to determine depression and anxiety as probable confounding variables. RESULTS: The mean MMSE scores in SLE and control group patients (26.12 ± 3.58 and 28.01 ± 1.99, respectively) were significantly different (P = 0.001). The sub-scores in all areas assessed with MMSE were lower in SLE patients; however, it was only significant in the areas of orientation, recall and language (P < 0.05). SLE patients showed a significantly poorer performance in TMT compared to healthy controls (P = 0.01). The CDT according to the Watson scoring system showed significant difference between the two groups (P = 0.03). The Sunderland scoring system also indicated poorer performance in the SLE group, but the difference was not significant. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that cognitive disorders are more than 3-fold higher in SLE patients compared to normal subjects. The most impaired domains include orientation, Memory (recall), Language, Executive function, and psychomotor speed. Anxiety and depression are mostly correlated with domains included in the MMSE test.