Yufen Lin, PhD'21, Chip Bailey, associate professor, and Sharron Docherty, assistant dean, PhD in Nursing Program, presented at the 2021 Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Congress, which ran from April 27 to 29. Co-authors include Laura Porter, professor with the School of Medicine.

Their oral presentation was entitled "Distinct Sleep Disturbance Profiles in Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancers Receiving Chemotherapy" and was selected for one of two Research Best Late Breaking abstracts at the ONS Congress. The manuscript was recently accepted for publication in Cancer Nursing.

The study's findings are also featured in the MedPage Today, "New Clues to Sleep Problems, Solutions in Cancer Patients," article by Mike Bassett. They found that almost two-thirds of patients with gastrointestinal cancers who received chemotherapy had high levels of sleep disturbance and that these patients were more likely to be younger, unmarried or unpartnered, have a higher comorbidity burden, and less likely to be physically active.

In addition, compared with patients in the low sleep disturbance group, patients in the high and very high groups were more likely to be female, less likely to be married or partnered, less likely to be employed, and less likely to engage in regular exercise. Patients in the very high sleep disturbance groups were more likely to suffer from depression (31.7%) and back pain (33.3%), than both the high sleep disturbance patients (16.2% and 22.8%, respectively) and low sleep disturbance patients (4.1% and 15.2%, respectively).

"Clinicians can use these common and distinct factors to identify high-risk patients with sleep disturbance and initiate appropriate sleep hygiene and referrals," Lin said in her presentation. "Also, future research is needed into personalized symptom management interventions," she said, adding that such interventions should incorporate patient preferences, their unique symptom experiences, and technologies that can further reduce the symptom burden and improve quality of life.