Sleep Moderating the Relationship Between Pain and Health Care Use in Youth With Sickle Cell Disease

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the influence of sleep on the relationship between pain and health care use (HCU) in youth with sickle cell disease (SCD). It was hypothesized that poor sleep would be related to higher HCU and would strengthen the relationship between high pain frequency and more HCU among youth with SCD.

Ninety-six youth with SCD (aged 8 to 17 y) and their guardians were recruited from 3 regional pediatric SCD clinics. Guardians reported on the youth's pain frequency and HCU using the Structured Pain Interview for parents, and youth wore a sleep actigraph for up to 2 weeks to assess sleep duration and sleep efficiency. A series of regression models were calculated with the following outcomes: emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and health care provider contacts.

Inconsistent with hypotheses, poor sleep was not directly related to HCU. Also, higher sleep duration appeared to strengthen the relationship between high pain frequency and more emergency department visits.

Findings suggest that good sleep may serve as a protective factor for better matching pain to HCU. Results should be interpreted in the context of study limitations. Research is needed to investigate possible mechanisms linking sleep duration to HCU in response to pain and to ascertain if sleep patterns influence the relationship between pain and other functional outcomes in youth with SCD. Clinically, these findings support the need to acknowledge and address the role that sleep plays in responding to SCD pain in pediatric populations.