Sleep quality among health care workers.

BACKGROUND: Sleep problems are common complaints in health care workers that can affect quality of life and productivity, both in patients and healthy individuals. This study evaluates the prevalence of low sleep quality in health care workers with no health issues or complaints of sleep problems. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study was conducted on healthy employees of a health care organization in Tehran. The presence of physical and mental health issues and satisfaction from their sleep quality was assessed by means of a self-administered questionnaire. Sleep quality was evaluated by the Persian version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). PSQI scores of 5 or less were considered as good sleep quality. RESULTS: From 925 participants, 56.9% were good sleepers. There was a significant association between poor sleep quality and female sex, divorced, shift-working, and age; it was not associated with education level. Self-rated health (SRH) had a significant positive correlation with sleep quality. CONCLUSION: Poor sleep quality is common in our study population and associated with a lower SRH. The high prevalence of poor sleep quality in a group of healthy non-complaining employees can be an important early sign of underlying physical or mental health issues. Providing screening and monitoring programs to detect the underlying health conditions and their consequent treatment can promote health and productivity of employees and improve society's health, both directly and indirectly.