Association between preoperative sleep disturbance and low muscle mass in patients with gastrointestinal cancer.
Maho Okumura, Takashi Saito, Akimasa Fukuta and 4 others
PMID 32082031WHAT IT FOUND
Preoperative patients with gastrointestinal cancer who reported poor sleep quality were significantly more likely to have low muscle mass than those with good sleep quality.
This association persisted after adjusting for inflammation and depression. Screening for sleep quality may help identify patients at risk for sarcopenia before surgery.
Key findings
01Patients with low muscle mass had significantly worse sleep quality than those without low muscle mass.
02After adjusting for C-reactive protein and depression, bad sleep quality was associated with low muscle mass (odds ratio, 4.15; 95% confidence interval, 1.02−16.9).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The cross-sectional design prevents determining whether poor sleep causes low muscle mass or if the burden of cancer and low muscle mass leads to poor sleep. The study included a very small number of women (14), preventing separate analysis by gender. Sleep quality was measured by self-report (PSQI) rather than objective measures like polysomnography or actigraphy. The wide confidence interval for the association between sleep quality and low muscle mass (1.02-16.9) suggests imprecision in the estimate. The study was conducted at a single center, which may limit generalizability.
Declared interests
The work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. No authors declared conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the association between sleep quality and muscle mass as proof that improving sleep will increase muscle mass. The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot establish causality, and the wide confidence interval indicates uncertainty about the strength of the relationship.