Longitudinal Dyadic Associations Between Fear of Cancer Recurrence and Objective Sleep Disturbance: Breast Cancer Survivors and Partners in the First-Year Post-Diagnosis

• Main Author: Perndorfer, Christine
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2022
• Subjects: Clinical psychology
• ISBN: 9798351457772

Background: Sleep disturbance is common among breast cancer (BC) survivors. Partners of BC survivors also experience sleep disturbance and sleep is concordant within-couple. Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is related to self-reported sleep disturbance in BC survivors and partners. Yet, no studies have examined the relationship between FCR and objective sleep disturbance in BC survivors, their partners, or at the dyad level. The present study examined the relationship between FCR and objective sleep disturbance in couples coping with early-stage BC. We hypothesized that greater FCR is associated with greater objective sleep disturbance. Methods: In two, 21-day daily diary periods (the completion of adjuvant treatment and the first post-treatment mammogram), BC survivors and partners reported daily FCR and actigraphy-measured objective sleep disturbance. Multilevel dyadic path and actor-partner interdependence modeling estimated daily, within-person and within-couple associations between one’s own FCR and one’s own sleep disturbance (actor effects) as well as between one’s own FCR and one’s partner’s sleep disturbance (cross-partner effects). Results: At the first, post-treatment mammogram, on a day that a survivor reported more FCR than was typical for them, they also demonstrated shorter sleep period length and shorter total sleep time that night, after controlling for any daytime sleep from that same day. Otherwise, FCR was not significantly related to objective sleep disturbance, in both periods, for survivors or partners, actor or cross-partner effects. Conclusions: Across early survivorship, BC survivors and partners demonstrated elevated levels of objective sleep disturbance – particularly difficulties with sleep maintenance. However, findings suggest that FCR is not consistently linked to objective sleep disturbance in couples coping with early-stage BC.