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. 2020 May 20:2:100017.
doi: 10.1016/j.sleepx.2020.100017. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Insomnia and stress of physicians during COVID-19 outbreak

Deldar Morad Abdulah  1 , Dildar Haji Musa  2
Affiliations

Insomnia and stress of physicians during COVID-19 outbreak

Deldar Morad Abdulah et al. Sleep Med X. .

Abstract

Background: Healthcare workers are at high risk of developing sleep disorders during an outbreak. This study aimed to measure severity of sleep difficulty and its correlation with duration of deal with suspected/confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in physicians.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 268 physicians from different medical settings were included during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Results: The mean age and experience of physicians were 35.06 (33-70 years) and 10.13 years. The median duration of dealing with suspected/confirmed cases of COVID-19 was 1.0 (0-30 days). The mean sleep score and stress of physicians were 8.43 of 24.0 and 4.20 of 10, respectively. More than two-thirds of the physicians were sleepless (68.3%) and majority had stress (93.7%). The study did not find a significant difference in sleep score of physicians with different specialties (P = 0.059). However, most physicians were sleepless; including anesthesia and intensive care (77.8%); general physicians (80.8%), and obstetrics and gynecology (80.0%). They were sleepless in morning (58.7%); evening (77.8%); night (100%); and multi-shift (70.9%). The physicians who dealt with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 or with stress had more escalated sleep compared to those who did not deal with patients or without stress (9.39 vs. 7.17 and 8.78 vs. 2.69 P < 0.001). The sleep of physicians was escalated with increasing stress (r = 0.558; P < 0.001) and a number of days that physicians dealt with suspected/confirmed cases of COVID-19 (r = 0.210; P = 0.001), respectively.

Conclusion: The study confirmed that working with COVID-19 patients has a negative effect on the sleep of physicians.

Keywords: COVID-19; Distress among physicians; Healthcare workers; Sleep difficulty.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors do not report any conflict of interest. The ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest associated with this article can be viewed by clicking on the following link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleepx.2020.100017.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Comparison of sleep severity in physicians with different stress and duration with the suspected/confirmed cases of COVID-19. Fig. 1a: Comparison of sleep between physicians who dealt and did not deal with suspected/confirmed cases of COVID-19. Fig. 1b: Comparison of sleep between physicians with and without stress.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Scatter plot of correlation of sleep with stress, deal duration with suspected/confirmed cases of COVID-19, experience, and age.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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