Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 25, 2025
Physical Activity Measurement in Children Accepting Table Tennis Training
Published on: July 27, 2022
Sleep health behaviors in pediatric patients with newly diagnosed cancer
Pippa Tucker1, Megan Loew2, Kathryn Russell3
1Graduate School of Professional Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO, United States of America.
Insights
Sleep health behaviors in children with cancer are generally stable but poor over 8 weeks. Adolescents had better sleep behaviors than younger children, and fatigue was linked to sleep issues.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Oncology
- Sleep Medicine
- Behavioral Health
Background:
- Disrupted sleep and fatigue are common in pediatric cancer patients.
- Limited understanding of sleep health behaviors in this population and their impact on nighttime sleep.
Purpose of the Study:
- Describe sleep health behaviors in newly diagnosed children with cancer.
- Determine changes in sleep health behaviors over an 8-week period.
Main Methods:
- 169 children (aged 2-18) with cancer completed sleep hygiene questionnaires at diagnosis (T1) and 8 weeks later (T2).
- Parent proxy report used for younger children (2-12 years); self-report for older children (8-18 years).
- Analyses included sociodemographics, cancer diagnosis, treatments, and medications.
Main Results:
- Adolescents reported better sleep health behaviors than younger children at both time points.
- Sleep health behaviors remained stable over 8 weeks, with some differences emerging by T2 related to gender, diagnosis, treatment, and medications.
- Fatigue was associated with increased pre-bedtime worries, insomnia, and lower rates of daytime sleepiness.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric cancer patients exhibit relatively stable, yet suboptimal, sleep health behaviors over 8 weeks.
- Sleep health behaviors are modifiable factors that warrant further investigation for targeted interventions.
- Understanding these behaviors is crucial for improving sleep quality in children undergoing cancer treatment.
Objective:
Disrupted sleep and fatigue are common symptoms in children with cancer, but little is known about this population's sleep health behaviors and how they may impact nighttime sleep. We aimed to describe the sleep health behaviors of children with newly diagnosed cancer and to determine if they changed over the next 8 weeks.
Methods:
Our sample included 169 children with cancer (86 males) who were aged 2-18 years (mean [SD] = 8.14 [4.4] y), with parent proxy report for 140 children (71 male) aged 2-12 years (mean [SD] = 6.67 [3.2] y) and self-report for 78 children (39 male) aged 8-18 years (mean [SD] = 12.0 [2.9] y). Parents and patients completed sleep hygiene questionnaires within 30 days of oncology diagnosis (T1); follow-up questionnaires were collected 8 weeks later (T2). Descriptive analyses characterized the sample by sociodemographic characteristics, cancer diagnosis, treatments received, and prescribed medications.
Results:
Age-related differences were found in sleep health behaviors, with adolescents reporting better overall sleep health behaviors than younger children at both time points. No differences in sleep health behaviors were found at T1 related to diagnosis, treatment, or medications. Some differences in sleep health behaviors were found at T2 related to gender, diagnosis, treatment, and medications. Sleep health behaviors and sleep problems remained relatively stable over 8 weeks. Fatigue was significantly associated with more pre-bedtime worries, insomnia, and lower rates of daytime sleepiness.
Conclusions:
These findings offer novel descriptive characteristics of sleep health behaviors in a pediatric oncology sample and show relatively stable yet somewhat poor sleep health behaviors across 8 weeks. Better understanding of sleep health behaviors as modifiable factors will help inform targeted interventions.
Related Concept Videos
01:15REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
RBD is significantly associated with...
01:27Nursing Ethical Principles II
Consider the following scenario, which illustrates how these principles are applied in the care of Mr. John, a fifty-year-old teacher diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer.
Initially, Mr. John's...
01:16Kidney Transplant III: Nursing Management
01:27Insomnia
Multiple factors contribute...
02:49Cancer Therapies
However, cancer treatments can pose several challenges, as therapies used to kill cancer cells are generally also toxic to normal cells. Moreover, cancer cells mutate rapidly and can develop resistance to chemical agents or radiation therapy. Besides, all types of cancer cells may not respond to the same therapy. Some cancer cells respond to one...
01:24Substance Use Disorders Affecting Sleep
Understanding the concepts of physical dependence,...