Assessing the Mental Health Status and Quality of Sleep among House Officers in Peshawar

Background:

Mental health and sleep quality of doctors are important factors not only for the doctor as an individual, but these also play an essential role in delivering health services to the population. Long working hours, nightshifts and demanding environment often lead to sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety and burn outs among doctors. Poor mental health and sleep deprivation negatively impacts the performance of doctors and thus may lead to many medical errors.
Objectives:

The objective of this study is to assess the mental health status and quality of sleep among house officers in Peshawar, to assess the association between gender and hospital status with the mental health and sleep quality of house officers, to determine the correlation between mental health status and sleep quality of house officers.
Methods:

This is a cross-sectional study. Data was collected from 276 House officers of four tertiary care hospitals in Peshawar, of these two were public and two were private hospitals. Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) scale was used for assessing the sleep quality and Warwick edinburgh mental wellbeing scale (WEMWBS) was used for assessing the mental health of the respondents.
Results:Among the 276 house officers that participated in the study, the mean mental health score was 48.13±9.17. Male house officers scored significantly higher compared to the female house officers (x̄ ±SD= male:49.83±8.70, female:45.72±9.32, p<0.05). The mean sleep quality score was 6.39±3.27. 194 (70.3%) of the participants had an inadequate quality of sleep (PSQI≥5). 69.8% of the male house officers while 71.1% of the female house officers had a poor sleep quality (PSQI≥5). Female house officers scored significantly higher compared to male house officers (x̄ ±SD= male:6.03±2.82, female:6.91±3.77, p<0.05). 69.6% of house officers working in public hospitals had a poor sleep quality (PSQI≥5) among which 59.8% were male house officers and 40.2% were female house officers, however there was no statistically significant difference between sleep quality score of male and female house officers (p>0.05). 71.3% of house officers working in private hospitals had inadequate sleep quality (PSQI≥5) among which 56.1% were male house officers and 43.9% were female house officers, however, no statistically significant difference was observed between sleep quality scores of male and female house officers (p>0.05). Furthermore, quality of sleep had a positive correlation with mental health status of house officers (p<0.01).
Conclusion:

Mental health status and quality of sleep among house officers was poor. Female house officers had a poor mental well-being as well as a poor sleep quality compared to male house officers. There was no significant difference between the mental health status and quality of sleep, of house officers working in public hospitals and those working in private hospitals. However, house officers having a poor sleep quality also had a poor mental health status showing a positive correlation between the two.
Keywords: Mental health, Sleep quality, Depression, Anxiety, Sleep deprivation, Public hospitals, Private hospitals.