Sleep disturbance and its effect on work performance of staffs following shifting duties: A cross-sectional study in a medical college and hospital of Tripura

Abstract

Introduction: Sleep disturbance among night-shift workers results in serious adverse effects on their health affecting almost all the systems of the body. Recently, the World Health Organization has also identified night-shift work as being carcinogenic to human. Objective: The main objective is to study the prevalence of sleep disturbance and its effect on work performance of health-care staff working in shifts in a Medical College Hospital of Tripura. Materials and Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in February 2018, among 135 staffs working in shifts, including resident doctors, intern doctors, nursing staffs, security guards, technicians, ward boys, and ward girls of the Tripura Medical College and DR. BRAM Teaching Hospital. Systematic random sampling was used to collect the required samples with a predesigned and pretested interview schedule designed based on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Data entry and analysis were done in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 16.0 (SPSS Inc. SPSS for Windows, Chicago, Illinois, USA). Data were represented in percentages in tables and charts, and the Chi-square test was applied to find out the statistical association. Results: Of the total 135 participants, the majority (28.9%) were interns and nursing staffs and paramedical students (26.7%). The prevalence of sleep disturbance was 54% among the participants, and it was significantly higher among those residing in hostel and quarter as compared to their own home (P = 0.003). Sleep disturbance was also found to be significantly decreasing their performance at work (P