Design: Baseline data from an intervention study

Population/Sample/Setting/Years: 54 female BCS seeking treatment for hot flashes at a southeastern comprehensive cancer center during 2000-2003. Women were a mean age of 51 years, Caucasian (93%), married/partnered (84%), employed (60%), postmenopausal (63%), with a mean of 16 years education, and at least one concurrent medical problem (48%).

Variables Studied: Sleep quality, latency, duration, efficiency, disturbance, medication use, dysfunction, and global sleep scores.

Methods: Demographics at week one and PSQI-19 item self rated scale of sleep over past month at week two.

Findings: Results indicate sleep is problematic in BCS with untreated hot flashes. Based on PSQI results, 28% described “fairly bad to very bad” sleep (quality), 52% revealed sleep onset greater than 15 minutes (latency), 52% reported 7 hours or less of sleep per night (duration), 50% had sleep efficiency scores less then 85% (indicator of poor sleep), 54% reported at least one sleep disturbance per week, 22% were taking sleep medications, 52% reported daytime dysfunction at least once per week, 69% met or exceeded the standard cut-off score for sleep problems ( >=5) and 34% met or exceeded the higher cutoff ( >=8) which has been significantly related to fatigue. Mean PSQI global scores were 6.2 (SD=3.1) indicating poor sleep quality and high sleep disturbance.

Conclusions: Although sleep disturbances have been reported in BCS, detailed analysis and reporting of PSQI parameters in this population has been limited. Findings suggest sleep disturbances are common in BCS experiencing untreated hot flashes.

Implication: Further evaluation of sleep problems with objective measures is necessary to further validate sleep problems in BCS experiencing hot flashes.

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