Relationship between sleep-wake circadian chronotype and anxiety and depression of medical students in a university in Wuhu City in 2020

Abstract

To explore the circadian rhythm of sleep-wake and its relationship with anxiety and depression among medical students. A stratified cluster random sampling method was adopted in this study, 2231 medical students in grades 1 to 3 from a medical college in Wuhu City(1004 boys and 1227 girls, aged(19.09±1.13) years) were selected in November 2020. The sleep wake circadian chronotype and mental health of medical students were evaluated by the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire 19(MEQ-19), the Patient Health Questionnaire 2(PHQ-2), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale(GAD-2), respectively. The detection rates of evening chronotype, intermediate circadian chronotype, and morning chronotype were 59.84%(n=1335), 37.92%(n=846), and 2.24%(n=50), respectively. The detection rates of anxiety, depression, and anxiety combined with depression were 12.86%(n=287), 14.12%(n=315), and 9.59%(n=214), respectively. After adjusting for gender, age, grade, class performance in the last half semester, and learning burden, the result of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that compared with medical students with intermediate circadian chronotype, medical students with evening chronotype were more likely to have anxiety(OR_(adj. )=1.403, 95% CI 1.066-1.846, P=0.016) and depression(OR_(adj. )=1.639, 95% CI 1.251-2.146, P < 0.001). The detection rate of anxiety and depression in medical students is high. The circadian chronotype of medical students is mainly evening chronotype, which is a risk factor affecting anxiety and depression among medical students.