Article:
Unrelieved symptoms significantly affect quality of life for individuals with cancer. Much of the research to date has focused on single symptoms, yet most patients with cancer experience more than one symptom at a time. Pain, sleep disturbance, and fatigue are three of the most common symptoms; however, the relationship among these variables has not been studied fully. Two models regarding the association among these three constructs could be proposed. First, individuals who are in pain sleep less and show greater fatigue. Second, pain and fatigue are related but independent of sleeplessness. In this second model, pain has a role in fatigue that is above and beyond the relationship between sleeplessness and fatigue. This article examines the symptom cluster of pain, sleep disturbance, and fatigue in a sample of 84 patients with cancer-related pain who participated in a study to examine the symptom experience