Impact of COVID19 on sleep quality of health care professionals

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) not only caused particularly large public health problems, but also caused great psychological distress, especially for medical staff. Sleep problems, such as poor sleep quality, are common in the health care profession due to high level of work-related stress. Poor sleep quality could result in serious health consequences, such as hypertension, exhaustion, burnout, and depression. OBJECTIVES: To examine the sleep quality of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic and its correlation with the socio-demographic data METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted using online Google forms. It included demographic data like age, gender, hours of covid duty and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) questionnaire among healthcare professionals of tertiary care covid hospital and the responses were recorded. Data was analysed using Microsoft office and SPSS trial version 25. The mean, frequencies, correlations and significance were assessed. RESULTS: Total of 189 healthcare professionals responded to the study. The mean age of the participants was 25.05yrs and 64% were females. 71.4% of the respondents were postgraduates. Pittsburgh sleep quality index with cut off score of >5 have showed that 65% of the participants were having poor sleep quality. There was a significant correlation between Pittsburgh sleep quality index and duty hours. CONCLUSION: Poor sleep quality among healthcare workers could impair their cognitive abilities and their clinical decision-making. Therefore, looking after the mental health of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic is necessary.