Self-Esteem as a Mediator between Life Satisfaction and Depression among Cardiovascular Disease Patients

This study explores the association between life satisfaction and depression among patients with cardiovascular diseases and whether this association is mediated by self-esteem. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a third-grade hospital. We examined 300 patients with cardiovascular diseases with a mean age of 62.00 years (females, 133). Life satisfaction was associated with depression. Adding self-esteem to the model weakened the strength of the association between the two. Moreover, 34.2% of the effect of life satisfaction on depression could be explained by self-esteem. We found that self-esteem could totally explain the effect of life satisfaction on depression among patients with cardiovascular diseases.

Age and Gender Differences in Emotion Recognition

Background

Existing literature suggests that age affects recognition of affective facial expressions. Eye-tracking studies highlighted that age-related differences in recognition of emotions could be explained by different face exploration patterns due to attentional impairment. Gender also seems to play a role in recognition of emotions. Unfortunately, little is known about the differences in emotion perception abilities across lifespans for men and women, even if females show more ability from infancy.

Objective

The present study aimed to examine the role of age and gender on facial emotion recognition in relation to neuropsychological functions and face exploration strategies. We also aimed to explore the associations between emotion recognition and quality of life.

Methods

60 healthy people were consecutively enrolled in the study and divided into two groups: Younger Adults and Older Adults. Participants were assessed for: emotion recognition, attention abilities, frontal functioning, memory functioning and quality of life satisfaction. During the execution of the emotion recognition test using the Pictures of Facial Affects (PoFA) and a modified version of PoFA (M-PoFA), subject’s eye movements were recorded with an Eye Tracker.

Results

Significant differences between younger and older adults were detected for fear recognition when adjusted for cognitive functioning and eye-gaze fixations characteristics. Adjusted means of fear recognition were significantly higher in the younger group than in the older group. With regard to gender’s effects, old females recognized identical pairs of emotions better than old males. Considering the Satisfaction Profile (SAT-P) we detected negative correlations between some dimensions (Physical functioning, Sleep/feeding/free time) and emotion recognition (i.e., sadness, and disgust).

Conclusion

The current study provided novel insights into the specific mechanisms that may explain differences in emotion recognition, examining how age and gender differences can be outlined by cognitive functioning and face exploration strategies.

[Analysis of relationships between perimenopausal symptoms and professional functioning and life satisfaction--Subjective perception of the dependence in women aged 40+]

BACKGROUND

The aim of the study was to analyse and present the opinions of women in perimenopause on subjectively perceived symptoms characteristic of the climacteric period, and connected with their professional functioning, as well as to evaluate the effects of selected variables on the incidence and severity of these symptoms and the women's life satisfaction.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study included 250 professionally active women in perimenopausal age (40-57 years). The study used the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) to evaluate life satisfaction of women and the Kupperman Index (KI) as quantitative and qualitative self-assessment of climacteric symptoms. The authors also used a questionnaire of their own design that contains an index of defined symptoms of perimenopause, which warrants the use of Pareto-Lorenz analysis.

RESULTS

The obtained results prove the presence of statistically significant correlations between the occurrence and severity of menopausal symptoms and the place of enployment (p=0.04912), gynecological care (p=0.00325), hormone replacement therapy (HRT) (p=0.01523) and assessment of life satisfaction (p=0.0325). Among the symptoms particularly influencing effective professional functioning, women pointed out hot flashes, irritability, reduced concentration and coordination, sleep disturbances, and increased sweating.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a statistically significant correlation between the woman's place of employment, gynecological care, HRT, the evaluation of life satisfaction and the severity of perimenopausal symptoms. A set of symptoms whose presence and severity influence the sense of life satisfaction and evaluation of professional functioning was observed. Among the most frequently reported symptoms that exert an adverse effect on professional functioning of women are: hot flushes, irritability, reduced concentration and coordination, sleep disturbances, and increased sweating.