Effect of Emerging Major Infectious Diseases on Sleep Quality of Medical Workers: Findings from Medical Workers Providing Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has exerted immense pressure on medical systems in China and abroad. This study aimed to compare the sleep quality of medical personnel conscripted to the Wuhan Union Cancer Centre to offer support during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic to the sleep quality of those who remained at Anhui Medical University Hospital and to determine the role of interventions in improving sleep quality. Material/Methods Questionnaires were completed by 369 individuals who were conscripted to support Wuhan (N=137) and others who were not (the control group; N=232). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to measure the duration and quality of sleep. The Anhui Provincial Health Commission organized a comprehensive intervention, consisting of physical-psychological-social dimensions, over the course of 2 weeks. Results Only 34.21% of the Wuhan support workers reported better sleep quality, as opposed to the 55.60% of the control group at stage 1 (t/χ 2 =14.005, P <.001). Furthermore, despite the Wuhan support group being more prone to poor sleep quality, their sleep quality significantly improved after the interventions. Conclusions The findings from this study showed that medical staff who were conscripted to offer support during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic suffered from impaired quality of sleep. The use of questionnaire-based sleep assessments may provide individualized approaches to supporting medical personnel during future epidemics and pandemics. Furthermore, our results indicate that relevant interventions can significantly improve sleep quality, while a prolonged break after interventions does not affect sleep quality.

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“… 11 In addition, COVID‐19 substantially affects the quality of life of healthcare professionals. 12 Eventually, for many researchers the overall profile of scientific output is deeply affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic, by shifting the field of interest towards still unexplored territories, 9 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 as also documented by the global number of publications (more than 190,000 from 2019 to date) available so far in PubMed (PubMed (nih.gov)).…”

Analysis of factors influencing the job satisfaction of medical staff in tertiary public hospitals, China: A cross-sectional study

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