What You Need to Know
Investigators from Hackensack Meridian John Theurer Cancer Center (JTCC) collaborated on a new study published in the journal Cancer Medicine.
Led by researchers from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Results from the Thinking and Living with Cancer Study (TLC) showed that the development of sleep disturbances during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic increased symptoms of depression and anxiety among older women, but the findings did not differ between women who survived breast cancer and women without cancer. It is the first study to assess sleep disturbances and mental health outcomes among cancer survivors during the pandemic.
Breast cancer survivors tend to experience worse sleep than the general population, as well as reporting more depression and anxiety symptoms. For this analysis, symptoms of depression and anxiety and reports of restless sleep were compared between 242 breast cancer survivors and 158 controls who were surveyed from May-September 2020.
Results:
There was an increase in sleep disturbances and symptoms of depression and anxiety during the pandemic, but survivors and controls did not differ in the magnitude of change. Nearly 1 in 4 participants (22.3%) reported experiencing sleep disturbances during this time, including new restless sleep in 10% of survivors and 13.5% of controls. Symptoms of depression and anxiety significantly increased during the pandemic among women reporting restless sleep, but there were no differences in these findings between survivors and controls.
The study's results may also inform the future care of patients. The investigators concluded that clinical and public health programs serving older adults should include surveillance of sleep disturbances during the pandemic to detect and treat worsening mental health.