Optimal sleep health among frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
- PDF / 274,470 Bytes
- 4 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 107 Downloads / 202 Views
CORRESPONDENCE
Optimal sleep health among frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic Mandeep Singh, MBBS, MD, MSc MBA . Raed Hawa, MSc, MD
. Saroo Sharda, MBChB, MMEd . Mamta Gautam, MD,
Received: 1 May 2020 / Revised: 4 May 2020 / Accepted: 4 May 2020 Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society 2020
To the Editor, Since the start of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, it has been declared a pandemic and has now involved over 200 countries.A Adverse effects on the mental health of frontline healthcare workers (HCW) has been at the forefront of concerns,1 with insomnia being one of the most commonly reported symptom.2 Because of the fundamental role that sleep plays in emotion regulation and body homeostasis, sleep disturbance can have direct consequences on both emotional functioning and
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12630-020-01716-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. M. Singh, MBBS, MD, MSc (&) Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, Women’s College Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada S. Sharda, MBChB, MMEd Department of Anesthesia, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada M. Gautam, MD, MBA Department of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada R. Hawa, MSc, MD Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada Centre For Mental Health, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
wellbeing.3 As physician wellbeing and patient safety are inextricably linked,4 it is imperative that we address sleep health for the sake of physicians and their patients. Over 1,200 HCWs from 34 hospitals in China dealing with COVID-19 were surveyed for mental health and sleep problems in a recent cross sectional, survey-based, regionstratified study.2 Frontline workers involved in direct care of patients with COVID-19 were associated with the highest risk of insomnia (odds ratio [OR], 2.97; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.92 to 4.60), followed by depression (OR,1.52; 95% CI, 1.11 to 2.09), anxiety (OR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.22 to 2.02), and distress (OR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.25 to 2.04).2 These self-reported symptoms were higher among nurses, women, and frontline HCWs, and in geographical areas with higher case infection rates. During a pandemic, concerns about personal safety, transmitting disease to family members, stigmatization from being infected, shift work, and interpersonal isolation coalesce to disrupt sleep health. This can manifest by hyper-arousal states, as well as problems with anxiety and stimulus control (e.g., beginning to associate the bed with wakefulness, rather than restful sleep); all of these can have negative effects on physician wellbeing.5 Moreover, specific lifestyle modifications such as home confinement and self-isolation c
Data Loading...
