Patient-reported pain and impaired sleep quality in adult patients with cystic fibrosis

BackgroundSleep impairment has been described in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Pain is a known cause of sleep disturbance and as pain is commonly reported in patients with CF, we sought to find an association between impaired sleep quality and pain.MethodsFifty adult CF patients completed surveys of pain and sleep quality. The results were analyzed with additional clinical data including age, sex, nutritional status, and lung function.ResultsThirty-two patients (64%) reported recent pain and 33 patients (66%) reported abnormal sleep quality. The patients with pain report worse sleep quality than those without pain (p = 0.006). There was a strong correlation between impaired sleep quality and pain (p < 0.0001).ConclusionsWe found that pain and poor sleep quality are reported in a majority of adult CF patients and there is a strong correlation between the two. This will have important clinical implications in the evaluation and treatment of adult patients.