Poor sleep quality is associated with obesity and depression in farmers

Abstract

Background Farmers’ work schedules can result in inconsistent sleep patterns which negatively impact health. Purpose To explore the relationships between sleep, obesity, and depression in working, older farmers and their spouses. Covariates included body mass index (BMI), age, and gender. Methods Sleep quality, BMI, and depression were assessed in farmers (n = 1,394) 50 years and older. Bivariate associations among all covariates (i.e., age, gender, BMI, sleep) and dependent variable (i.e., depression) were analyzed using Pearson's correlation. Multivariable associations of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD). BMI with other study variables were assessed using linear regression. Results BMI was positively associated with sleep apnea symptoms (p ≤ 0.0001) and CESD scores (p = 0.0006). Participants with difficulty falling asleep were more likely to have poor sleep quality (p ≤ 0.0001) and higher CESD scores (p ≤ 0.0001). Poor sleep quality was associated with higher CESD scores (p ≤ 0.0001). Increased age, female gender, higher BMI, sleep apnea symptoms, and poorer sleep quality were all predictive of higher depressive symptoms. Discussion Farmers have unique lifestyles that increase the risk of poor sleep. Screening for sleep pattern disruption and understanding its impact could result in lower rates of depression and obesity in this group of high‐risk individuals.

The Relationship between Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and anxiety, Depression, Stress and Sleep in Professional Drivers in southern Iran

“…In addition, Poor quality of sleep is in association with anxiety and depression. [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] Our results share several similarities with Potvin et al's ndings, which reported a signi cant association of PSQI subscales with anxiety, particularly sleep duration in hours, sleep disturbance score, and daytime functioning score. [40] Since sleep is a complex biological process, providing an exact pathophysiological theory as a justi cation of reported correlations between poor sleep quality, depression and anxiety have been a subject of controversy.…”

Key Risk Factors Affecting Farmers’ Mental Health: A Systematic Review

“…It has been found that farm residents with self-reported physical illness (e.g., neck, shoulder, and back pain [73]; obesity; metabolic syndrome; abdominal adiposity; and cardiovascular disease [153,154]) tend to have higher self-reported psychiatric impairment. Hawes et al [155] found that higher body mass index (BMI) and poor sleep quality were also associated with higher depression scores. Carvalho et al [156] found an association between work end time on the relationship between sleep onset time and farmer psychological well-being.…”

“…Usually lack of knowledge or the belief that a person should deal with his or her mental problems alone were common reasons that decrease the possibility of individuals’ help-seeking [9,58,179]. Lack of access to mental health services in rural areas was another major burden to the delivery of appropriate mental health services [20,33,155]. Polain et al [181] found that usually, older farmers try to access mental health support; however, practical and cultural barriers often prevented them from succeeding.…”

Risk for Depressive Symptoms and Suicide Among U.S. Primary Farmers and Family Members: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Six studies (Beseler & Stallones, 2003;Hawes et al, 2019;Merchant et al, 2002;Rayens & Reed, 2014;Stallones & Beseler, 2002b, 2004 confirmed that women exhibited higher depressive symptoms scores compared to men in the study; no studies reported higher rates in men compared to women. Carruth and Logan (2002) noted that 24% of their all-female sample reported depression, while Scarth et al (2000) reported a prevalence of 9.8% in their all male sample.…”