Dyadic effects of distress on sleep duration in advanced cancer patients and spouse caregivers.
OBJECTIVE
Short sleep duration is a common problem for both advanced cancer patients and their spouse caregivers. Sleep and distress have been shown to be interdependent in patient-caregiver and spouse dyads, yet virtually, no work has explored the dyadic effects of psychological distress on sleep in advanced cancer patients and spouse caregivers. The goal of the present study was to examine the dyadic impact of anxiety and depression on sleep duration in a sample of advanced cancer patients and their spouse caregivers. It was hypothesized that, for both patients and caregivers, anxiety and depression in individuals would be associated with sleep duration in both themselves (actor effects) and in their spouses (partner effects).


METHOD
Advanced cancer patients and their spouse caregivers (N = 87 dyads) completed cross-sectional questionnaires assessing demographic variables, subjective health, subjective sleep duration, and anxiety and depression symptoms.


RESULTS
Controlling for sex, age, and subjective health, individuals' anxiety was negatively associated with their own and their partner's sleep duration. No significant actor or partner effects were found for depression.


CONCLUSIONS
Results provided partial support for hypotheses. Although past work has demonstrated links between subjective sleep disturbance and anxiety/psychological distress, this is one of the first studies to examine partner effects of distress on sleep disturbance in advanced cancer patients and spouse caregivers.
['Otto|Amy K|AK|0000-0003-3712-6435', 'Gonzalez|Brian D|BD|0000-0001-5108-5735', 'Heyman|Richard E|RE|', 'Vadaparampil|Susan T|ST|', 'Ellington|Lee|L|', 'Reblin|Maija|M|0000-0003-3108-465X']
D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D001007:Anxiety D017028:Caregivers D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D003863:Depression D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009367:Neoplasm Staging D009369:Neoplasms D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders D018454:Spouses
sleep cancer patients spouses caregivers anxiety depression couples observational study oncology