Poster Presentation
Water's Edge Ballroom (Hilton Waikoloa Village)
Thursday, July 14, 2005
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Water's Edge Ballroom (Hilton Waikoloa Village)
Thursday, July 14, 2005
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Pain and Sleep Interactions in Minority Cancer Patients
Roberta Kaplow, PhD, RN, CCNS, CCRN, Emory University School of Nursing, Atlanta, GA, USA
| Learning Objective #1: Describe the nature and extent of pain and sleep disturbances in minority patients with lower socioeconomic status |
| Learning Objective #2: Describe the influence of pain intensity and sleep disturbance and their interactions on functional status in minority patients with lower SES |
The diagnosis and treatment of cancer produces a variety of symptoms that significantly influence patients' comfort and quality of life. Effective assessment and management of these symptoms must be offered in conjunction with disease-oriented, life-prolonging therapies. Successful palliation of symptoms helps patients cope with their cancer and its therapies. Two prevalent symptoms that can affect a patient's comfort and quality of life are pain and sleep disturbances. It is well documented that pain is a moderate to severe problem in a large number of cancer patients. Poorly controlled pain has devastating effects. Severe pain may even lead for patients to abandon treatment. Sleep disturbance is also a common problem among patients with cancer. Indeed, data suggest that 30-50% of newly diagnosed or recently treated patients with cancer report sleep difficulties. However, a significant number of patients who have sleep difficulties never mention them to their providers and when they do, interventions are not offered. Factors such as ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) affect both pain and sleep disturbances. Because these patients are at significant risk for developing sleep disturbances and for experiencing serious pain at some time during their disease trajectory, it was important to explore possible relationships between these two symptoms. No studies had examined the relationship between pain and sleep in minority cancer patients with SES or the impact of these symptoms and interactions on health outcomes. Therefore, this exploratory study examined pain and sleep disturbances, their interactions and their relationships with functional status in minority and lower SES patients who are receiving outpatient oncology care.