Sleep quality of medical students and the related factors

doi:10.3321/j.issn:1673-8225.2004.33.021

Abstract：BACKGROUND: Sleep disorders affect the physical health and mental well-being of human beings. There has been much research about the sleep problems among undergraduate medical students, while the sleep quality of other types of medical students is not well discussed.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the sleep quality of undergraduates, seven-year program students and graduate students, and the influencing factors so as to provide a scientific basis for improving the sleep quality of medical students.DESIGN: A sampled survey.SETTING, PARTICIPANTS and METHODS: With cluster sampling method, a total of 998 subjects were selected from Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, involving undergraduates,seven-year program students and graduate students, and a self-made sleep status questionnaire was used for a survey. We got 918 valid questionnaires,including 389 males and 529 females, with an age range of 16 to 35 years old.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The sleep quality of the students was evaluated in the light of the Pittsburgh sleep quality index(PSQI) . The score no less than 8 was taken as the criterion of having a sleep disorder. The influencing factors included general status and psychological health status.RESULTS: 17.32% of the people had problems in sleep quality. The prevalence rates of the sleep disorder were 23.37%, 14.02% and 12. 16% in undergraduates, seven-year course students and graduate students respectively. The former one was significantly higher than the latter two(x2 = 16. 07, P ＜ 0.01 ). Stepwise regression analysis found that the factors that affected the sleep quality were bad sleep environment, discomfort of the bedclothes, anxiety, depression, great pressure from study and taking little exercise. The score of PSQI of undergraduates was significantly higher than that of the other two sorts of students( F = 15.20, P ＜ 0.05). The score of sleep latency of seven-year program students was significantly lower than that of the other two sorts of students( F = 9. 17, P ＜ 0.05), and the score of sleep duration of graduate students was significantly lower than that of the other two sorts of students( F = 18.72, P ＜ 0. 05) . The score of daytime function of graduate students was significantly lower than that of the other two sorts of students ( F = 14.62, P ＜ 0. 05). The correlation analysis indicated that anxiety and depression were positively correlated with PSQI ( r = 0.510 5,0. 445 1, P ＜ 0. 000 1), while the living satisfaction was negatively correlated with PSQI ( r = - 0. 299 2, P ＜ 0. 000 1 ).CONCLUSION: Medical students suffered from the problem with the sleep quality to a varying degree. The sleep quality of undergraduates was the worst. The contributing factors toward poor sleep quality were bad sleep environment, discomfort of the bedclothes, anxiety, depression, great pressure from study, and taking little exercise. The poorer the sleep quality was, the more serious symptoms of anxiety and depression there would be, and the worse the living satisfaction was.