Evaluation of the correlation between job stress and sleep quality in community nurses

Chronic sleep deprivation may worsen many medical and mental health conditions, causing difficulty in the ability to function at work. Job stress may be a factor that directly correlates with the poorer sleep quality of nurses from different departments in a general hospital. However, epidemiological evaluations of sleep problems among community nurses in China are scarce, and an association between sleep problems and occupational stress has not been investigated. This study investigated the association between nurses’ job stress and sleep quality in a community hospital in China. This cross-sectional study was conducted from September to November 2017 and involved 180 nurses who had worked for more than 1 year in 12 community hospitals. The Job Stress Questionnaire was administered to evaluate occupational stress. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to evaluate sleep disorder status. Logistic regression was performed to investigate the association between job stress and sleep disorder among these community nurses in China. For the 155 nurses who completed the study, the job stress score was 58 ± 18, and 72 nurses (46%) had a Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI > 7). The type of nurse contract and total job stress scores were related to sleep disturbances within the previous month. The job stress scores were negatively associated with sleep quality; in other words, the higher the job stress scores were, the worse the quality of sleep. The logistic regression analysis showed that the type of nurse contract and self-reported job stress were significant factors affecting sleep quality. Sleep disturbances in nurses were highly associated with job difficulty factor, doctor-patient relationships, psychosomatic state, environment or events, promotion or competition and total pressure scores. Sleep problems were prevalent among clinical nurses in community hospitals in China. Occupational stress negatively affects sleep quality in Chinese community nurses; the higher the stress is, the worse the sleep quality.