Fatigued Breast Cancer Survivors: The Role of Sleep Quality Depressed Mood Stage and Age

摘要

Cancer-related fatigue is associated with lower health-related quality of life and the majority of breast cancer survivors experience persistent fatigue after finishing treatment. The present study examined age, cancer stage, sleep quality, and depressed mood as predictors of five dimensions of fatigue in seventy fatigued breast cancer survivors who no longer evidenced any signs of cancer and were finished with treatment. Discriminant function analyses were used to predict fatigue subgroup membership (higher, lower) from age, stage, mood, and sleep for five subtypes: General, Mental, Emotional, and Physical Fatigue, and Vigor. Significant discriminant functions were found for all subtypes. Findings suggest that age, staging, mood, and sleep are all important predictors, but there are differential relationships when subtypes of fatigue are considered. Given current limitations in treating fatigue directly, interventions targeting mood and sleep should be considered as alternate approaches to reduce fatigue.