Abstract

SLEEP DISORDERS AMONG INPATIENTS AT AL MOUWASAT UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, DAMASCUS, SYRIA

Youssef Latifeh, Thayr Haydar, Hussein Khalil Nahle, Fatima Abbas, Khaled Turkmani, Nawras Alhalabi and Bisher Sawaf*

ABSTRACT

Background: Sleep disorders are common and unrecognized complaint in the general population. Hospitalization seems to interfere with maintenance and quality of patients’ sleep leading to increased prevalence of sleep disturbance in inpatients. Limited research in this topic is done especially in Syria. This study aims to investigate sleep quality and affecting factors in inpatients at Al Mouwasat hospital. Methods: A cross sectional study conducted at Al Mouwasat University Hospital, which is the main hospital for patients from all Syrian areas during the crisis, between June 2015 and March 2016. 289 inpatients was randomly selected from surgical and internal wards. Pittsburgh Sleep Questionnaire (PSQI) was administered to assess their
sleep patterns and risk factors, where numerous environmental factors related to hospitalization were analyzed to inspect their attribution to sleep disorders. Results: Patients’ hospitalization is accompanied with poor quality of sleep. 37.02% suffered from difficulty in initiating sleep. About half of the participants (49.13%) reported having difficulties in staying awake all daytime. Pain was reported by 78.55% of the participants in both internal and surgical wards as the most affecting factor, followed by fear and worry (75.43%), noise (68.17%), boredom (60.55%) and yearning from family 50.17%. Mean PSQI score for total poor sleep quality=6.5±3.4, total poor sleep=47.06%. Conclusion: Sleep problems are quite frequent among inpatients at Al Mouwasat Hospital. Hospitalization affects patients’ sleep patterns by many factors. The most reported factors are pain and noise. More research is needed to assess types and causing factors and management of sleep disorders among inpatients.

Keywords: Hospitalization, insomnia, Sleep disorders, The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Syria.