Study of Sleep Disorders among Healthcare Professionals in Tropical Environments: Prevalence and Determining Factors Summary

Abstract

Introduction: Sleep is one of man's primary needs. The quality of sleep improves well-being and consequently the performance of humans in their various activities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and determining factors of sleep disorders among health professionals. Methodology: This was a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study which took place from 14 January to 09 March 2020 and involved questionnaires administered to 402 consenting healthcare professionals. Our study included healthcare professionals at CHU-B who were present at their place of work during the study period. Pittsburg sleep quality index (PSQI) enabled us to assess sleep quality among healthcare professionals Results: A total of 402 of the 505 healthcare professionals at CHU-Bogodogo were registered during the study. The mean age was 39.2 ± 7.1 years. The sex ratio was 0.93. According to the Pittsburg sleep quality index (PSQI), 193 healthcare professionals had a sleep disorder, i.e. a prevalence of 52.45%, with a female predominance of 53.88%. In this study, 36.78% of healthcare professionals suffered from insomnia, 28.49% of which was insomnia on falling asleep. The components of the PSQI most affected in order of severity were: sleep duration, sleep latency and poor form during the day, with respectively 67.87% of healthcare professionals with sleep disorders sleeping less than 7 hours per night, 35.75% usually taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep and 24.35% being in fairly poor form during the day. The factors determining the onset of sleep disorders were: professional stress and the use of sleep medication, which respectively affected 63.73% and 11.39% of healthcare professionals with sleep disorders. Conclusion: Sleep disorders were present in more than half the healthcare professionals at CHU-B. The challenge for these sensitive healthcare professionals is to combine professional constraints with the necessary conditions for restful sleep.