Association between Sleep Quality and Mental Health among Medical Students in a University Center in Tehran, Iran
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Background:Poor sleep quality and mental health problems are relatively common among medical students, and have many consequences in their lives and education. Moreover, some studies have reported that the above two issues affect each other. In Iran, limited studies have been conducted in this field. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim to determine the frequency of poor sleep quality and mental health problems among medical students and the association between these two variables.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, which was conducted from January to April 2021, 320 medical students of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (Tehran, Iran) participated. Sampling was performed through the stratified method based on gender and educational phase. Data was collected using an online questionnaire including the following components: a researcher-made sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 items (DASS-21).
Results: The mean age of 320 participants was 22.95 ± 2.59 years and 145 (45.3%) were men. The percentage of medical intern participants (34.7%) was higher than that of basic science (34.4%) and medical extern (30.9%). The mean PSQI score was 8.11 ± 2.99, which shows overall poor sleep quality. The comparison between poor sleepers and good sleepers in terms of sociodemographic variables showed that only grade point average was significantly lower in poor sleepers (P = 0.049). The prevalence of some levels of depression, anxiety, and stress among participants was 100%, 100%, and 95.3%, respectively. There were also significant associations between poor sleep quality and all three components of mental health of depression (P < 0.001), anxiety (P < 0.001), and stress (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: Poor sleep quality and mental health problems are interrelated among medical students, and reduce their academic performance. The high prevalence of these problems indicates the importance of the issue, which requires immediate action by the authorities to decrease its consequences.
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