Sleep quality and excessive daytime sleepiness in a Arab diabetic population

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and its patterns in a Diabetic population sample. The survey was carried out at the outpatient diabetic clinics of the Hamad General Hospital and Primary Health Care (PHC) centres. A total number of 1050 T2DM patients aged above 20 years of age were selected by a systematic sampling procedure from diabetic clinics of the hospitals and PHC centres and 847 cases agreed to participate in the study with a response rate of 80.7%. The study included information about socio-demographic characteristics including age, sex, marital status, education level, occupation, height, weight and parental consanguinity, medical history, smoking habit, physical activity and sleeping habits during the past month. We have used both instruments Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) score and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI). Of the studied diabetic patients, 46.9% were males and 53.1% females. Majority of the diabetic patients were in the age group (40 - 59) years old (59.3%). More than half of the diabetic women were housewives (56.9%) and most of the men were in sedentary and professional jobs (38.1%). ESS score revealed that diabetic women (64.4%) were significantly more sleepier than men (55.2%) during the daytime (p= 0.034). Overall, 60.1% of the diabetic patients were very sleepy during the daytime with 43% men and 57% women and a significant difference was observed between both the genders (p< 0.001). There was a significant association observed between both the genders in all the situations of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, especially while watching TV (18.4% vs 23.8%, p= 0.024), sitting in the public place (4% vs 10.4%; p= 0.003) and sitting talking to someone (1.5% vs 6.4%, p< 0.001) and sitting in a car in the traffic (3.8% vs 7.1%; p< 0.001). Obesity was significantly higher in diabetic women who had high chances of EDS (51.7%) than men (39.3%) (p= 0.007). Physical activity was significantly lower in diabetic women with poor sleep (38.6%) compared to men (50.2%) (p= 0.012). The present study findings observed that sleep quality was very poor in diabetic population. Also, Excessive day time sleepiness was observed more in diabetic population.