Prevalence and predictors of sleep disturbance among liver diseases in long-term transplant survivors

BACKGROUND:

Patients with cirrhosis are known to experience sleep disturbance, which negatively impacts health-related quality of life.

OBJECTIVE:

To assess the prevalence and predictors of sleep disturbance before and after liver transplantation (LT).

METHODS:

Both pre- and post-LT patients were administered the Basic Nordic Sleep Questionnaire. The primary outcome was overall sleep satisfaction; the secondary outcomes were sleep latency and sleep duration.

RESULTS:

Eighty-three patients participated pre-LT and 273 post-LT. Overall, participants having completed both pre- and post-LT questionnaires reported satisfactory sleep 61% of the time before LT and 65% of the time after LT. However, on review of all questionnaires, patients with alcoholic liver disease (ETOH) experienced dramatically less sleep disturbance (OR 0.13 95% CI 0.03 to 0.60]) post-LT, whereas those with hepatitis C remained without improvement (OR 0.90 95% CI 0.38 to 2.15]). On logistic regression, patients with ETOH had statistically less sleep satisfaction pre-LT (OR 5.8 95% CI 1.0 to 40.5]) and significantly better sleep satisfaction post-LT (OR 0.50 95% CI 0.20 to 1.00]) compared with those with hepatitis C. In addition, both ETOH and other conditions had significantly better sleep latency than hepatitis C patients.

CONCLUSIONS:

Sleep parameters for patients who undergo LT for hepatitis C do not improve following LT as much as they do in patients transplanted for ETOH. Following LT, patients transplanted for ETOH are significantly more satisfied with their sleep than those transplanted for hepatitis C. Physicians should address and manage sleep quality after LT, so as to ultimately improve quality of life.