Association between poor clinical prognosis and sleep duration among breast cancer patients

OBJECTIVE: to investigate the association between clinical progression and the quality and duration of sleep in women with breast cancer. METHOD: longitudinal study, with 114 participants, conducted in a hospital in Brazil. The instruments used were: questionnaire for sociodemographic and clinical characterization, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; Beck Depression Inventory and Herth Hope Scale. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and survival analyses (outcome: poor clinical progression), using the Kaplan-Meier curve, Log-rank test and Cox proportional model. RESULTS: a higher probability of poor clinical progression was verified in women with sleep durations of less than six hours or nine hours and over (p=.0173). CONCLUSION: the results suggest the importance of further studies that seek to verify whether the quantitative management of sleep disorders would have an impact on the progression of breast cancer. Women should be encouraged to report sleep problems to nurses.