Background
Sydney Cancer Survivorship Clinic (SCSC) aims to helps survivors recover from their cancer treatment and manage lasting effects. Sleep issues have been identified as a common symptom. SCSC clinicians use Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) to assess concerns as part of their initial consultations. Here we report patient concerns regarding sleep issues.
Method:
SCSC attendees completed the Patient’s Disease and Treatment Assessment Form -General (PTDA) rating “trouble with sleeping” in the previous month with scores of 1-3 rated as mild concerns, 4-6 moderate, and 7 and above severe. Other symptoms including fatigue, anxiety and depression were rated using the same scale. Descriptive statistics were used to describe demographics and chi-square for comparison between groups (categorical data).
Results:
Results were collected between September 2013 and 2022 and includes data for 719 attendees who provided consent. The proportion of patients reporting moderate to severe sleep issues on the PTDA (scoring 4 or above) was 40% (260/655). Of this group, 52% reported severe anxiety symptoms (52% vs 16%), 56% reported severe symptoms of depression (56% vs 19%) and 52% reported severe fatigue (52% vs 14%) (p <0.00) and were more likely to be aged less than 65 years. More women reported moderate to severe issues sleeping than men 44.6% vs 26.6% (p <0.01). Breast cancer patients reported the highest incidence of moderate to severe sleep issues (54%) compared to other cancer groups; haematological (50%); colorectal (25%); other (33%) (p<0.01).
Conclusion
Moderate to severe sleep disturbance is commonly reported by cancer survivors reporting moderate to severe levels of anxiety, depression and fatigue. It is reported more by people aged less than 65. Breast cancer patients had higher rates of moderate to severe sleep issues compared to other tumour groups.