Evidence from various sources suggests that females with schizophrenia tend to report lower quality of life than males with schizophrenia despite having a less severe course of the disorder. However, studies have not examined this directly.

To examine gender differences in the association between quality of life and the risk of subsequent psychiatric hospital admissions in a national sample with schizophrenia.

The sample consisted of 989 (60.90%) males and 635 (39.10%) females with an ICD-10 diagnosis of schizophrenia. Quality of life was assessed and scored using the Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life. The course of schizophrenia was assessed from the number of psychiatric hospital admissions. Participants completed the quality of life assessment and were then followed up for 18-months for subsequent psychiatric admissions. Hazard ratios (HR) from Cox proportional hazards regression models were estimated unadjusted and adjusted for covariates (age at schizophrenia onset and birth year). Analyses were computed for males and females separately, as well as for the entire cohort.

A subsample of 93 males and 55 females was admitted to a psychiatric hospital during follow-up. Higher quality of life scores were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with a reduced risk of subsequent admissions among males (unadjusted: HR = 0.96, 95% CI 0.93–0.99; adjusted HR = 0.96, 95% CI 0.93–0.99) but not among females (unadjusted: HR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.93–1.02; adjusted HR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.93–1.02).

Quality of life in schizophrenia is a gender-specific construct and should be considered as such in clinical practice and future research.

Sleep disturbance in cancer patients is common. The aim of this study is to investigate the risk of sleep disorders in cancer patients compared to patients with other diseases using the national registry data.

Using data from the Korean National Health Insurance Research Database between 2002 and 2013, the cancer group was composed of patients with an initial diagnosis of cancer in 2004 (n = 3358). The remaining people were considered as comparison group (n = 493,577) after excluding patients with any cancer or psychiatric disorder from 2002 to 2003 and from 2005 to 2013. Each sampled subject was tracked until 2013. Cox proportional hazard regressions were used to calculate the overall rate for sleep disorder development after adjusting for age, gender, and socio-economical confounders.

Cancer patients were associated with an increased risk of sleep disorder in both sexes (male hazard ratio [HR]: 1.319; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.232–1.413; female HR: 1.289; 95% CI: 1.198–1.386) after adjusting for potential confounders. Both results were statistically significant (P < 0.001). In terms of age, the effect size of the HR was largest among elder adults, aged ≥ 70 years (male HR: 1.748; female HR: 1.820). The HR tended to increase consistently.

Initial diagnosis of cancer was significantly associated with sleep disorder development after adjusting for potential confounders. This result suggests that thorough screening and intervention for sleep disorders are required for the newly diagnosed cancer patients to improve their quality of life.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.