• Janet S Carpenter, Julie L Elam, Sheila H Ridner, Pam H Carney, Gloria J Cherry, and Heather L Cucullu.
• School of Nursing, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, USA. carpentj@iupui.edu
• Oncol Nurs Forum. 2004 May 1;31(3):591-5598.

Purposes/ObjectivesTo compare sleep quality and disturbance, fatigue, and depressive symptoms between breast cancer survivors and healthy women experiencing hot flashes and to examine relationships among sleep and remaining variables (fatigue, depressive symptoms, and frequency of hot flashes).DesignCross-sectional, descriptive, comparative pilot study.SettingUniversity-based outpatient setting.Sample15 breast cancer survivors and 15 healthy women matched on age, race, and menopausal status. All women had untreated hot flashes (no hormone replacement therapy or other hot flash treatments).MethodsQuestionnaires (sleep quality and disturbance, fatigue, and depression); two ambulatory, 24-hour sternal skin conductance monitoring sessions (hot flash frequency); and medical records review.Main Research VariablesSleep quality and disturbance, fatigue, depressive symptoms, and objective hot flash frequency.FindingsThe majority of participants evidenced poor sleep quality and high sleep disturbance (73% of breast cancer survivors and 67% of healthy women above a cutoff score of 5). Sleep duration was significantly shorter for breast cancer survivors in contrast to healthy women. Nighttime flashes were experienced by 67% of breast cancer survivors and 37% of healthy women. No group differences were found in fatigue, depressive symptoms, or objective hot flash frequency. Global sleep scores were significantly positively correlated with fatigue and depression but not with hot flash frequency.ConclusionsFindings suggest that sleep disturbance is common in menopausal breast cancer survivors and healthy women, is not necessarily related to hot flashes, and may stem from a multifactorial etiology.Implications For NursingMenopausal breast cancer survivors who present with any one of these symptoms should be screened for all symptoms both during and after treatment.

27 keywords...

hide…