Did social isolation due to COVID-19 interfere with the quality of sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness in individuals with grade III obesity about to enter a surgical prehabilitation program? An observational study

Social isolation (SI) can have negative effects on health, although little is known about the SI consequences on patients with grade III obesity and even less if they are entering a prehabilitation program. Objective: the present study analyzes the effects of SI determined by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in people with grade III obesity who about to enter a prehabilitation program for bariatric surgery. Methods: Five patients with grade III obesity who entered a prehabilitation program or which had to be stopped on March 17th, 2020 were evaluated. Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) (Epworth Sleepiness Scale - ESS) and sleep quality (SQ) (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index - PSQI) were investigated. Data collection took place in the week before the SI government decree and after 30 and 90 days of SI. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 20.0 and GraphPad Prism 8.0. The Friedman test was used to verify the difference between the times and a significance level of p < 0.05 was adopted. Results: with SI, EDS improved by 8 points after 30 days and 3 points after 90 days (p < 0.05). The PSQI did not change (p = 0.819). Conclusion: the SI improved the EDS of individuals with grade III obesity entering the prehabilitation program, but did not change complementing their SQ. The improvement in EDS may be related to a longer daily sleep time provided by the SI and the lower number of daily work commitments. Measures to improve the SQ of these patients should be considered, including remote forms.