Background: Fatigue has been reported as one of the most distressing symptoms in oncology patients, yet few have investigated the longitudinal course of sleep and fatigue in newly diagnosed pediatric oncology patients.
Procedure: To longitudinally assess presence and changes of sleep complaints and fatigue, we administered questionnaires designed to measure sleep complaints, sleep habits, daytime sleepiness, and fatigue to parents of pediatric oncology patients ages 2-18 and to pediatric oncology patients, themselves, ages 8-18 within 30 days of diagnosis (n = 170) and again 8 weeks later (n = 153).
Results: Bedtimes, wake times, and sleep duration remained relatively stable across the first 8 weeks of treatment. Sleep duration and fatigue were not related for the entire sample, though children's self-reported sleep duration was positively correlated with fatigue only at the baseline time point. Parent reports of fatigue significantly decreased for leukemia patients but remained rather high for solid tumor and brain tumor patients.
Conclusions: Because fatigue remained high for solid tumor and brain tumor patients across the initial 8 weeks of treatment, this may highlight the need for intervention in this patient population.