Poster Presentation 2025 National Cancer Survivorship Conference

Exploring the Acceptability of Four Different Non-Pharmacological Sleep Interventions for Women with Breast Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy (#64)

Trang Thuy Do 1 , Jess Wilson 1 , Joshua Wiley 1 , Catriona Parker 1
  1. Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Background

Poor sleep is common after breast cancer and is associated with worse quality of life and cancer-related outcomes. Guidelines recommend everyone with cancer receive sleep hygiene education (SHE) as first line support. SHE typically focuses on factors that influence sleep, such as caffeine and alcohol use, exercise, noise, and sleep timing. For people with elevated insomnia symptom, guidelines recommend Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I). CBT-I targets unhelpful cognition and behaviours related to sleep. Finally, there is growing recognition that cancer and its treatments disrupt circadian rhythms, leading to interest in sleep interventions targeting circadian rhythms, notably Bright Light Therapy (BLT).

Aim

Given the high prevalence of sleep problems during breast cancer treatment and their impact on recovery, this study aimed to explore women’s experiences with three non-pharmacological sleep interventions: SHE, CBT-I, and BLT. Given their distinct mechanisms, we also explored women’s experiences with combining CBT-I and BLT. We also investigate their perceptions of intervention acceptability, and ways to better meet participants' needs and circumstances.

Method

Participants underwent semi-structure interviews via Zoom or phone. A semi-structured interview guide was constructed based on the Acceptability of Healthcare Intervention Framework (Sekhon et al., 2017). Participants were purposively sampled to ensure diverse representation across various characteristics from the SleepCare trial (Maccora et al., 2022), which administered SHE, CBT-I, BLT, and CBT-I + BLT.

Twenty-two women were interviewed ( Mage = 52.27, SDage = 13.70), where 6 received SHE, 4 received CBT-I, 7 received BLT, and 5 received CBT-I+BLT. The transcripts are currently being analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and supported by NVivo (Utah, USA). Results and discussion of the analysis will be presented at the conference regarding individual experiences with and perceptions of interventions.

Conclusions

Findings will inform future implementation of sleep interventions for women with breast cancer.

 

  1. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
  2. Maccora, J., Garland, S. N., Ftanou, M., Day, D., White, M., Lopez, V. A., Mortimer, D., Diggens, J., Phillips, A. J. K., Wallace, R., Alexander, M., Boyle, F., Stafford, L., Francis, P. A., Bei, B., & Wiley, J. F. (2022). The Sleep, Cancer and Rest (SleepCaRe) Trial: Rationale and design of a randomized, controlled trial of cognitive behavioral and bright light therapy for insomnia and fatigue in women with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy. Contemporary clinical trials, 120, 106877. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2022.106877
  3. Sekhon, M., Cartwright, M. & Francis, J.J. Acceptability of healthcare interventions: an overview of reviews and development of a theoretical framework. BMC Health Serv Res 17, 88 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-017-2031-8