Most patients with advanced cirrhosis have disturbed sleep, which leads to a decrease in quality of life, according to study results published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
The study included 193 adult patients with cirrhosis who visited the hepatology outpatient clinics at Indiana University between December 2012 and January 2014. Thirty-six patients had subjectively good sleep and researchers considered 157 to have poor sleep as determined by mild, moderate or severe disturbances.
Seventy-one percent of patients with Child-Pugh class A reported poor sleep, as did 85% with class B and 93% with class C (P = .02). Further, 70% of patients with compensated cirrhosis and 84% with decompensated cirrhosis (P = .04) reported poor sleep.
The researchers found an association between lowered quality of life in the patients who had poor sleep, muscle cramps, and hepatic encephalopathy.
