A cross‐sectional study of sleep disturbance among middle‐aged cancer patients at Vietnam National Cancer Hospital

Abstract

Abstract Aim Sleep disorders are common in cancer patients and have negative consequences for patient well‐being and treatment outcomes. This study aimed to investigate sleep quality and related factors in Vietnamese middle‐aged cancer patients. Methods A cross‐sectional study was conducted on 246 middle‐aged in‐patient cancer patients at Vietnam National Cancer Hospital (VNCH) from 1/2021 to 7/2021. Sleep was measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), with a cutoff of 5. Results The results showed a male/female ratio of 0.85 with an average age of 52. The five most prevalent cancer types were breast, colorectal, lung, and esophagus‐stomach cancer, primarily in the late stage and treated with chemotherapy. The prevalence of sleep disturbances was 58.5%. The mean PSQI score was 7.5, with sleep duration and latency of 5.4 h and 1 h, respectively. Approximately 44% of participants reported poor sleep quality, nearly 9% had daytime dysfunction, and 10.6% used sleep medication. The multivariate logistic regression results indicate that people with depression were 8.89 times more likely to have poor sleep than those without depression (95% CI:2.63–28.27, p < .001). Conclusion Sleep problems are common among middle‐aged people with cancer in Vietnam, especially individuals with depression. It is necessary to have more effective approaches to sleep management for cancer patients with limited resources.

Keywords

• cancer patients
• PSQI scale
• sleep disorder
• sleep disturbance
• Vietnam