Insomnia and stress of physicians during COVID-19 outbreak

Background: Healthcare workers are at high risk of developing sleep disorders during an outbreak. This study aimed to measure severity of sleep difficulty and its correlation with duration of deal with suspected/confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in physicians. Methods: In this cross-se...

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Main Authors: Deldar Morad Abdulah, Dildar Haji Musa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2020-12-01
Series:Sleep Medicine: X
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590142720300069
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author Deldar Morad Abdulah
Dildar Haji Musa
author_facet Deldar Morad Abdulah
Dildar Haji Musa
author_sort Deldar Morad Abdulah
collection DOAJ
description Background: Healthcare workers are at high risk of developing sleep disorders during an outbreak. This study aimed to measure severity of sleep difficulty and its correlation with duration of deal with suspected/confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in physicians. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 268 physicians from different medical settings were included during the COVID-19 outbreak. Results: The mean age and experience of physicians were 35.06 (33–70 years) and 10.13 years. The median duration of dealing with suspected/confirmed cases of COVID-19 was 1.0 (0–30 days). The mean sleep score and stress of physicians were 8.43 of 24.0 and 4.20 of 10, respectively. More than two-thirds of the physicians were sleepless (68.3%) and majority had stress (93.7%). The study did not find a significant difference in sleep score of physicians with different specialties (P = 0.059). However, most physicians were sleepless; including anesthesia and intensive care (77.8%); general physicians (80.8%), and obstetrics and gynecology (80.0%). They were sleepless in morning (58.7%); evening (77.8%); night (100%); and multi-shift (70.9%). The physicians who dealt with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 or with stress had more escalated sleep compared to those who did not deal with patients or without stress (9.39 vs. 7.17 and 8.78 vs. 2.69 P < 0.001). The sleep of physicians was escalated with increasing stress (r = 0.558; P < 0.001) and a number of days that physicians dealt with suspected/confirmed cases of COVID-19 (r = 0.210; P = 0.001), respectively. Conclusion: The study confirmed that working with COVID-19 patients has a negative effect on the sleep of physicians.
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spelling doaj.art-1a1d77731a1d40059200ead81667f9f02022-12-21T19:55:30ZengElsevierSleep Medicine: X2590-14272020-12-012100017Insomnia and stress of physicians during COVID-19 outbreakDeldar Morad Abdulah0Dildar Haji Musa1Community Health Unit: College of Nursing, University of Duhok, Iraq; Corresponding author.Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Duhok, IraqBackground: Healthcare workers are at high risk of developing sleep disorders during an outbreak. This study aimed to measure severity of sleep difficulty and its correlation with duration of deal with suspected/confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in physicians. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 268 physicians from different medical settings were included during the COVID-19 outbreak. Results: The mean age and experience of physicians were 35.06 (33–70 years) and 10.13 years. The median duration of dealing with suspected/confirmed cases of COVID-19 was 1.0 (0–30 days). The mean sleep score and stress of physicians were 8.43 of 24.0 and 4.20 of 10, respectively. More than two-thirds of the physicians were sleepless (68.3%) and majority had stress (93.7%). The study did not find a significant difference in sleep score of physicians with different specialties (P = 0.059). However, most physicians were sleepless; including anesthesia and intensive care (77.8%); general physicians (80.8%), and obstetrics and gynecology (80.0%). They were sleepless in morning (58.7%); evening (77.8%); night (100%); and multi-shift (70.9%). The physicians who dealt with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 or with stress had more escalated sleep compared to those who did not deal with patients or without stress (9.39 vs. 7.17 and 8.78 vs. 2.69 P < 0.001). The sleep of physicians was escalated with increasing stress (r = 0.558; P < 0.001) and a number of days that physicians dealt with suspected/confirmed cases of COVID-19 (r = 0.210; P = 0.001), respectively. Conclusion: The study confirmed that working with COVID-19 patients has a negative effect on the sleep of physicians.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590142720300069COVID-19Healthcare workersSleep difficultyDistress among physicians
spellingShingle Deldar Morad Abdulah
Dildar Haji Musa
Insomnia and stress of physicians during COVID-19 outbreak
Sleep Medicine: X
COVID-19
Healthcare workers
Sleep difficulty
Distress among physicians
title Insomnia and stress of physicians during COVID-19 outbreak
title_full Insomnia and stress of physicians during COVID-19 outbreak
title_fullStr Insomnia and stress of physicians during COVID-19 outbreak
title_full_unstemmed Insomnia and stress of physicians during COVID-19 outbreak
title_short Insomnia and stress of physicians during COVID-19 outbreak
title_sort insomnia and stress of physicians during covid 19 outbreak
topic COVID-19
Healthcare workers
Sleep difficulty
Distress among physicians
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590142720300069
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