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
. 2021 Jan 27;13(1):e12948.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.12948.

Prevalence of Poor Sleep Quality Among Physicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic

May M Abdellah  1 , Mohamed F Khalil  2 , Amna Alhafiz  3
Affiliations

Prevalence of Poor Sleep Quality Among Physicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic

May M Abdellah et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Background: Sleep quality is influenced adversely or favorably by various intrinsic and extrinsic factors and sleep deprivation is a common problem facing doctors.

Objectives: To assess sleep quality among physicians during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and correlate it with possible predictors.

Methods: This cross-sectional four-months study included a total of 344 physicians from different medical centers in the period between July 2020 and October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Physicians were aged between 24 and 60 years from different specialties. Data were collected using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS).

Results: Among our participant physicians there was poor sleep quality in 71.2%, while good sleep quality was present in 28.8%. There were significant correlations between poor sleep quality and the following parameters in the univariate logistic regression analysis: anxiety features (P value <0.001), depressive features (P value <0.001), and past history of COVID-19 (P value 0.003). However, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only the presence of anxiety features (P value <0.001) and depressive features (P value <0.001) could be used as significant independent predictor of poor sleep quality among physicians during COVID-19.

Conclusion: Presence of anxiety and or depressive features among physicians are the most significant independent predictors of poor sleep quality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: anxiety; covid-19; depression; pandemic; physicians; sleep.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Distribution of demographic data and baseline characteristics among the participant physicians (n = 344)
HADS: Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale
Figure 2
Figure 2. Distribution of age among the participant physicians (n = 344)
Figure 3
Figure 3. Distribution of sleep quality among the participant physicians using Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (n = 344)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization declares global emergency: a review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O’Neill N, et al. Int J Surg. 2020;76:71–76. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Staying physically active during the quarantine and self-isolation period for controlling and mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic overview of the literature. Chtourou H, Trabelsi K, H'mida C, et al. Front Psychol. 2020;10:3389. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Psychological health, sleep quality, and coping styles to stress facing the COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. Fu W, Wang C, Zou L, Guo Y, Lu Z, Yan S, Mao J. Transl Psychiatry. 2020;10:1–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pandemic fear and COVID- 19: mental health burden and strategies. Ornell F, Schuch JB, Sordi AO, Kessler FH. Braz J Psychiatry. 2020;42:232–235. - PMC - PubMed
    1. The examination of sleep quality for frontline healthcare workers during the outbreak of COVID-19. Jahrami H, BaHammam AS, AlGahtani H, et al. Sleep Breath. 2020:1–9. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources