Sleep Quality and Correlated Factors among Retired Nurses in the North-east of Iran

Abstract

People in occupations with an extreme amount of stress, such as nursing, suffer from poor physical and mental health after retirement. This study was aimed at evaluating sleep quality scores and their correlates among retired nurses in the north-east of Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 302 retired nurses in public hospitals of north-east Iran between April and May 2018. The data were collected using the Persian Version of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a valid and reliable scale to evaluate sleep quality among Iranian people through phone calls. The mean age of subjects was 56.6 ±4.6 and 66.9% were female. Altogether 82.7% of retired nurses had poor sleep quality. According to multiple regression analysis, males had a significantly better overall sleep quality compared to females. Participants with evening and rotational shifts had a significantly lower sleep quality as compared to those working in the morning shift. Subjects suffering from musculoskeletal diseases, cardiovascular diseases (and a combination) had substantially poorer sleep quality as compared to those with no comorbidity. Findings suggest that Iranian retired nurses do not have good sleep quality. Health systems and their managers play an important role in preparing nurses for retirement. They can reduce post-retirement complications by designing a normal employee work schedule, increasing the nursing workforce when needed, and preventing overwork and long?term overtime hours.