Assessment of Sleep Quality among Medical Doctors in a Tertiary Hospital in a Semi-Rural Setting

Abstract

Introduction: Sleep is an integral part of human physiology; therefore, disorders of sleep may result in significant derangement in human functionality. Sleep medicine has received little attention in Nigeria. Against this backdrop, this survey seeks to evaluate the quality of sleep among doctors.

Methodology: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study involving 59 doctors working with Federal Medical Centre Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, Nigeria; it was done between August 2017 and December 2017. Purposive sampling method was adopted. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) were adopted. The questionnaire was self-administered.

Results: There were 34 (57.6%) males and 25 (42.4%) females. Their age ranged from 20 to 66 years, with a mean of 34.39 ± 8.00. The Epworth score ranged from 8 to 29, with a mean of 16.1 ± 4.4, while the PSQI score ranged from 5 to 19, with a mean of 9.5 ± 2.7. The mean work hour per week was 90.3 ± 36.2 h, and majority of the respondents worked for >80 h and or >24 h consecutively in the preceding week, and most had high ESS scores; however, this observation was not statistically significant (Fisher's exact test = 4.0904, P = 0.213). All respondents were poor sleepers and majority sleep for <7 h in the night. Respondents had worked for 5 years and less; house officers and medical offers had more tendencies for daytime sleepiness.

Conclusion: All respondents were poor sleepers and also had prolonged work hours per week; there was also heightened daytime sleepiness.

Keywords: Doctors; Nigeria; sleep quality; work hours.