Methods: This was a prospective, longitudinal pilot study. Three structured questionnaires were utilized, including the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Endocrine Symptoms (FACT-ES), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Fatigue subscale (FACT-F). Participants also wore a wrist actigraph on their nondominant wrist for 3 days at each follow-up time point to measure their sleep quality. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including repeated measures analysis of variance.
Results: Sixteen women with a new diagnosis of endometrial cancer were recruited through the gynecology clinic in a medical center, and all of them have completed all assessments at three time points. The sample had a mean age of 54.66 years (SD = 8.69). The majority of women were married or partnered (75%) and unemployed or retired (56.2%). Before surgery, the mean scores of the FACT-ES, CES-D, and FACT-F were .82 (SD = .36), 11.40 (SD = 1.90), and 10.38 (SD = 7.80), respectively. Following up at 3 and 6 months after surgery, only the mean score of FACT-ES had significantly decreased (p < .05). The mean scores of CES-D and FACT-F did not have significant changes at 3 and 6 months after surgery. Using the wrist actigraph to measure sleep quality, the averages of sleep efficiency at 3 time points were 81.50% (SD = 7.67), 80.93% (SD = 6.35), and 78.12% (SD = 6.13), respectively. The sleep efficiency was slightly decreased before surgery and in a 6-month period after surgery; however, the changes did not reach statistical significance.
Conclusions: In a 6-month period after surgery, endocrine symptoms would significantly decrease. However, the sleep efficiency in this sample was lower than 85% whether measured before the surgery or at 3 and 6 months after surgery. The previous study has indicated that poor sleep quality has a significant relationship with poor quality of life (Sanford et al., 2013). The sleep issues in this population should be paid more attention; in addition, the strategies for improving sleep quality should be provided in a timely manner.
Acknowledgment: This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology and LinKou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.