To investigate fatigue, health-related quality of life (HR-QOL), and sleep quality in women with primary Sjogren syndrome (pSS) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as compared with healthy controls using self-reports and wrist actigraphy. In this cross-sectional observational study, we evaluated a total of 25 patients (aged 40–75 years) with pSS, 10 with RA, and 17 healthy control subjects living in Japan. The HR-QOL was assessed using the Short Form-36. Fatigue was evaluated using the Short Form-36 vitality score, visual analog scale (VAS) for fatigue, and 2 questionnaire items using scores based on a 4-point Likert scale. Sleep quality was measured using the Japanese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, VAS for sleep quality, and wrist actigraphy for 14 days. Patients with pSS reported severer fatigue and lower HR-QOL than healthy controls, especially in mental health. Based on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score, 56% of the patients with pSS were poor sleepers, which was higher than healthy controls (29.4%). Furthermore, the patients with pSS scored significantly lower on the VAS for sleep quality than healthy controls (40.5 vs 63.7, P = .001). Although subjective assessments revealed slight sleep disturbances in patients with pSS, wrist actigraphy revealed no differences when compared with healthy controls for total sleep time (421.8 minutes vs 426.5 minutes), sleep efficiency (95.2% vs 96.4%), number of awakenings (1.4 vs 0.9), and wake after sleep onset (22.4 minutes vs 16.1 minutes). Poor subjective sleep quality was associated with enhanced fatigue. However, sleep efficiency, as determined by actigraphy, was not associated with fatigue. Notably, the patients with RA and healthy controls did not differ significantly in terms of fatigue or sleep quality, although patients with RA experienced more nocturnal awakenings than healthy controls (1.7 vs 0.9, P = .04). Patients with pSS experience severe fatigue, poor HR-QOL, and sleep disturbances, which are associated with fatigue. However, wrist actigraphy did not reveal differences in sleep quality, suggesting that it may not be an appropriate measure of sleep in patients with pSS.
Background Sleep disturbances due to hormonal imbalance are common during pregnancy. Studies have suggested that poor sleep quality in pregnant women can lead to perinatal abnormalities; therefore, the need of the hour is to determine the actual circumstances of sleep during pregnancy from an early stage, and provide support for better sleep quality. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess sleep quality by objective assessment using an actigraph and subjective assessment using a questionnaire for sleep during each trimester of pregnancy, and to elucidate how sleep quality changed from the first to the third trimester of pregnancy. Methods A longitudinal questionnaire survey and sleep measurements using actigraph were conducted at three time points, during the first, second, and third trimester, of pregnancy for primiparous women who had conceived naturally. Results During the first trimester of pregnancy, there was no “feeling of being refreshed when waking up in the morning,” and there was a decline in mental function. During the second trimester of pregnancy, a positive correlation between morning sickness and sleep quality (r = 0.59, p = 0.001) was observed. Sleep quality was the worst during the third trimester, with the shortest total sleep time (382.6 ± 26.3 min, F = 11.7, p = 0.0001) and poor sleep efficiency (93.9%±3.2%, F = 4.1, p = 0.0029). Physical function score was also poor. Regarding minor troubles that affected sleep efficiency, back pain (r = 0.47, p = 0.03) and leg cramps (r = 0.57, p = 0.01) exhibited significant correlation with sleep efficiency in the third trimester of pregnancy. Conclusions Poor sleep during pregnancy begins from the first trimester; if minor troubles such as morning sickness continue in the second trimester, sleep quality is greatly affected. Furthermore, during the third trimester of pregnancy, low back pain and leg cramps are more likely to occur due to the increase in the abdominal area, and may interfere with sleep.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.