Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2020 Feb 5;17(3):1011.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17031011.

Sleep Disturbances Rate among Medical and Allied Health Professions Students in Iran: Implications from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Literature

Mojtaba Khaksarian  1 , Masoud Behzadifar  2 , Meysam Behzadifar  3 , Firuzeh Jahanpanah  2 , Ottavia Guglielmi  4 , Sergio Garbarino  4 , Paola Lanteri  5 , Tania Simona Re  6   7   8 , Riccardo Zerbetto  7 , Juan José Maldonado Briegas  8 , Matteo Riccò  9 , Nicola Luigi Bragazzi  4   6   7   8   10   11
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Sleep Disturbances Rate among Medical and Allied Health Professions Students in Iran: Implications from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Literature

Mojtaba Khaksarian et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Medicine and healthcare professions are prestigious and valued careers and, at the same time, demanding, challenging, and arduous jobs. Medical and allied health professions students, experiencing a stressful academic and clinical workload, may suffer from sleep disturbances. In Iran, several studies have been conducted to explore the prevalence rate among medical and healthcare professions students. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to quantitatively and rigorously summarize the existing scholarly literature, providing the decision- and policy-makers and educators with an updated, evidence-based synthesis. Only studies utilizing a reliable psychometric instrument, such as the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), were included, in order to have comparable measurements and estimates. Seventeen investigations were retained in the present systematic review and meta-analysis, totaling a sample of 3586 students. Studies were conducted between 2008 and 2018 and reported an overall rate of sleep disturbances of 58% (95% confidence interval or CI 45-70). No evidence of publication bias could be found, but formal analyses on determinants of sleep disturbances could not be run due to the dearth of information that could be extracted from studies. Poor sleep is highly prevalent among Iranian medical and healthcare professions students. Based on the limitations of the present study, high-quality investigations are urgently needed to better capture the determinants of poor sleep quality among medical and healthcare professions students, given the importance and the implications of such a topic.

Keywords: Iran; Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); academic and clinical performance; medical students; sleep disturbances; sleep quality; systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The process of study search, retrieval, and inclusion adopted in the present systematic review and meta-analysis concerning the prevalence rate of sleep disturbances among Iranian medical and allied healthcare professions students. Only studies utilizing the “Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index” (PSQI) were retained.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The forest plot showing the overall prevalence rate of sleep disturbances among Iranian medical and other allied health professions students and stratified by specific course degree. CI—confidence interval.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Sensitivity analysis showing the stability and reliability of the findings. The dotted line refers to the width of the 95% confidence interval.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Publication bias as quantitatively assessed performing the Egger’s linear regression test. The finding of the test showed no evidence of publication bias. SND: standard normal deviate.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Sub-group analysis performed based on study quality.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Rich A., Viney R., Needleman S., Griffin A., Woolf K. ‘You can’t be a person and a doctor’: The work-life balance of doctors in training-a qualitative study. BMJ. Open. 2016;6:e013897. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013897. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tafoya S.A., Aldrete-Cortez V., Ortiz S., Fouilloux C., Flores F., Monterrosas A.M. Resilience, sleep quality and morningness as mediators of vulnerability to depression in medical students with sleep pattern alterations. Chronobiol. Int. 2018 doi: 10.1080/07420528.2018.1552290. in press. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Norbury R., Evans S. Time to think: Subjective sleep quality, trait anxiety and university start time. Psychiatry Res. 2018;271:214–219. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.11.054. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Azad M.C., Fraser K., Rumana N., Abdullah A.F., Shahana N., Hanly P.J., Turin T.C. Sleep disturbances among medical students: A global perspective. J. Clin. Sleep Med. 2015;11:69–74. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.4370. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Phan D.V., Chan C.L., Pan R.H., Yang N.P., Hsu H.C., Ting H.W., Lai K.R., Lin K.B. Investigating the effect of daily sleep on memory capacity in college students. Technol. Health Care. 2018 doi: 10.3233/THC-181350. in press. - DOI - PubMed