Background & Aims
Pain is the most unpleasant symptom of cancer. Pain in cancer is very frustrating and devastating and could interfere with sleep quality and reduce the quality of life. Unfortunately, the existing data about the characteristic of cancer pain are limited, especially in Indonesia. Adequate pain assessment and management is critical to improve the quality of life and health outcomes. Thus, we conducted a study about the characteristic of pain and sleep quality of cancer patients.
Methods
This is an observational analytical study. The data was obtained from cancer patients hospitalized in Professor Ngoerah General Hospital in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, from January 2022 to June 2022. This study was received an ethical clearance from local ethic committee of Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University (Number 2023.02.1.0811).
Results
There were 48 males and 96 females with a mean age of 53.92 (51.8 – 56.01) in this study. About 111 patients had chronic pain, and 105 patients experienced breakthrough pain. During the examination, 57 patients (39.6%) had moderate pain intensity, and 48 patients (33.3%) had mild pain intensity, with a mean pain scale of 3.73. Of 144 patients, only 67 (46.5%) who prescribed opioids. Ninety-nine patients had poor sleep quality assessed by PSQI, 96 patients with mild sleep difficulty, and three with moderate sleep difficulty. There was a significant positive correlation between the pain scale and sleep quality. Patients with metastases tumor and bone metastases were more likely to experience breakthrough pain (OR 3.02 and OR 3.3)
Conclusions
This study provides information about pain characteristics in cancer patients, which is helpful for clinical and future research. Comprehensive management of cancer pain is needed to improve the quality of life of cancer patients.
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