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

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.