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Exercise has beneficial effects on emotional cognitive control for the majority of the population. However, the impact of exercise on cognitive processes in perimenopausal women remains unclear. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of aerobic exercise on the cognitive processes of perimenopausal women using an emotional Stroop task (EST). Method: A quasi-experimental pilot study was conducted involving 14 perimenopausal women (Peri-MG) and 13 healthy young women (YG) who completed an EST before and after an aerobic cycling exercise. Mixed-effects models for repeated measures were used to analyze reaction times (RTs) and error rates (ERs) during emotional word processing (positive, negative, and neutral) for both groups. Results: Compared with the YG, the Peri-MG showed significantly shortened RTs for positive and negative emotions (p < 0.05) post-exercise, but not for neutral words. In addition, the Peri-MG exhibited significantly increased ERs for negative words at baseline compared with the YG (p < 0.05), but this difference was not observed during the post-exercise test. Conclusion: The findings suggest that aerobic exercise can enhance executive control performance in perimenopausal women. The Peri-MG exhibited marked behavioral plasticity in the form of reduced bias to salient cues that were significantly more sensitive to alterations due to exercise. This new evidence enhances the understanding of emotional vulnerability and beneficial susceptibility to exercise in perimenopausal women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nurses in intensive care units (ICUs) care for critically ill and dying patients. The stressful nature of the work performed by these nurses may affect their spiritual health and sleep quality., Purpose: The purpose of this correlational study was to explore the sleep quality, spiritual health, and related factors in a sample of ICU nurses., Methods: A cross-sectional correlational design with stratified random sampling was applied. A total of 170 clinical nurses were recruited from the ICUs of a medical center in northern Taiwan. A demographic characteristics questionnaire, the spiritual health scale-short form, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used for data collection., Results: The average PSQI score was 7.07, with 62.9% of the participants reporting poor sleep quality. A significantly negative correlation was identified between the spiritual-health-scale item "connections to others" and the PSQI. "Connections to others", "chronic diseases", and "menstrual cycle discomfort" were the important predictive factors of sleep quality in the ICU nurses in this study., Conclusions / Implications for Practice: The findings of this study support nurses engaging in regular exercise that is both low-intensity and not subject to time or space restrictions in order to help prevent chronic diseases and relieve dysmenorrhea. Furthermore, education and training related to spiritual health should be incorporated into the whole-person education curriculum in order to enhance spiritual status and improve sleep quality.

Background: The prognosis of patients with liver cirrhosis often involves multiple complications and repeated admissions, which may significantly burden and reduce the quality of life of the primary caregivers of these patients., Purpose: The purpose of this correlational study was to explore the relationship between the burden of caregivers of liver cirrhosis patients and their quality of life., Methods: A structured questionnaire, which included the Primary Caregiver Burden Scale, Coping Behaviors Scale, the WHOQOL-BREF, and a caregiver demographic datasheet, was used to collect data. Descriptive and inferential statistics (independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's product-moment correlation, and stepwise regression analysis) were used to analyze data., Results: A total of 113 participants were recruited from a medical center in northern Taiwan. The results revealed: (1) The highest average scores for caregiver burden were in the financial domain, while the lowest average scores were in the physical domain. The highest average scores for quality of life were observed in the environment domain, while the lowest average scores were in the physical health domain. (2) Most of the caregivers adopted a problem-solving oriented strategy to care for their patient. (3) Overall care burden correlated negatively with overall quality of life (r = -.223, p < .05). The caregivers' "self-assessed health", "financial load", and "daily care hours" were significant factors affecting overall quality of life (F = 52.78, p < .05), accounting for 58% of the total variance in the results., Conclusions: The results of this study may help nurses better understand and work to reduce the burden of caregivers in order to enhance their quality of life. Nurses should assess caregiver burden, especially in cases where caregivers themselves are in a poor financial situation or have poor self-assessed health, in order to provide necessary support and assistance.

Background: Resilience is known to affect the degree to which individuals adapt to the impact of stroke and its sequelae. However, few studies have examined resilience and related factors among stroke patients in Taiwan., Purpose: To explore resilience and related factors among stroke patients in the recovery stage., Methods: A cross-sectional and correlational study design was adopted. Convenience sampling was employed to recruit participants from the rehabilitation inpatient wards of a regional teaching hospital in northern Taiwan. A structured questionnaire, including the social support scale and the Chinese version of the resilience scale, was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and stepwise regression analysis., Results: A total of 128 stroke recovery in-patients who averaged 57.2 ± 11.6 years of age and were predominantly male were recruited. The results of this study showed that the global resilience of participants was moderate and that a significantly positive correlation existed between global social support and resilience. Age, marital status, and global tangible social support accounted for 25.0% of the total variation in resilience., Conclusions / Implications for Practice: Age, marital status and global tangible social support were identified as the crucial predictive factors of resilience in stroke patients. The results support the recommendation that healthcare providers should acquire advanced knowledge and skills through in-service education, proactive caring, and encouraging patients to learn self-care in order to enhance rehabilitation motivation and confidence levels and subsequently promote disease recovery and the ability to adapt to life through cross-disciplinary medical team cooperation and supportive relationships.

Middle age is an important period for confronting physical and psychological changes, and a crucial time for building positive health habits for the elderly stage of life. In addition, middle-aged adults must adapt their physical and psychological changes with their social roles. The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of health education and health promotion for middle-aged adults, and to describe how the application of health education and planning through health education strategies can improve the health status of this population.