Calidad de sueño y antojo por azúcares en médicos residentes durante la pandemia de COVID-19 en el Perú

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, health workers, especially resident physicians, experience high levels of emotional pressure, workload, contagion risk, family isolation and physical fatigue. These factors could be associated with sleep disturbances, such as insufficient duration and unsatisfactory quality. Although there is no specific study on sleep problems in this population. METHODS: Observational, prospective and analytical cross-sectional study carried out in 107 resident physicians who worked in national reference hospitals in Peru. The sleep quality was measured with the Pittsburgh index (PI) and questions about food cravings were included. The questionnaire was strictly confidential, informed consent was obtained from each participant. A univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis was performed. RESULTS: The mean age was 32.37 years, 54.6% were women, 52.3% worked in COVID-19 areas, 55.1% were displaced to other areas outside their specialty, 13,1% suffered from COVID-19, 11.2% were in home confinement; 68.2% reported that they had food craving (79.45% for simple sugars). The mean sleep time was. 5.90 hours, the mean Pittsburgh index (PI) score was 8.03; 89.71% had sleep problems (PI > 4). An association was found between sleep problems (PI > 4) and food craving (p < 0.001, OR 12.78 [2.58-63.21]) and perform other activities with having a sleep problem (PI > 4) (p = 0.037; OR = 4.34). CONCLUSION: Resident physicians have a high prevalence of sleep problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, which are associated with performing different activities within their training, and also problems are associated with food craving.