Objective: The goal is to improve sleep and decrease fatigue for patients with cancer. The objective was to obtain pilot data on the effectiveness of exercise therapy on improving sleep for these patients and use these data in planning a full-scale study.
Design: Two-group, randomized controlled trial.
Population, Sample, Setting, Years: Patients receiving high dose chemotherapy and peripheral stem cell transplant as treatment for multiple myeloma, 37 in feasibility/pilot with 160 to enroll in full-scale study (all enrolled in the same treatment protocol for their disease with randomization to receive thalidomide), outpatient treatment program at Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, 9 months for feasibility/pilot study with 2.5 years planned for full-scale study.
Intervention and Outcome Variables: Intervention variable is an individualized home-based exercise program beginning after baseline testing and continuing for 13 weeks. The main outcome variables are sleep and fatigue.
Methods: Repeated measures (x 3) allows participants to provide data on their fatigue (FACT-AN, POMS), sleep (Actigraph), aerobic capacity (six minute walk test), and muscle strength (dynamometer). Weekly reports provide their activity summaries.
Findings: To date 37 patients have completed the study, with 23 in the exercise group and 14 in the usual care group. The average nocturnal sleep in the exercise group increased by 28 and 49 minutes per night over the course of the study in the non-thalidomide and thalidomide group, respectively. Whereas, the average nocturnal sleep in the control group increased 1 minute in the non-thalidomide group and decreased 31 minutes for the thalidomide group.
Conclusions: Due to the small number of current subjects, these increases are not statistically significant, but it appears that the value of exercise may be great enough to warrant the full-scale study.
Implications: Exercise may improve nocturnal sleep and thus decrease fatigue for patients receiving treatment for cancer.
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Back to 14th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
10-12 July 2003