Prevalence of insomnia in health care workers during coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: a cross sectional study

Background
In December 2019, a highly infectious critical acute respiratory syndrome caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus developed in Wuhan, China. The health care workers (HCWs) were subjected to increased workload, physical exhaustion, improper personal protective equipment and dangerous of nosocomial infection. HCWs are, as a result, liable for mental health troubles, such as fear, anxiety, depression, and insomnia.


Patients and methods
This was a cross–sectional study conducted on HCWs in Mansoura University Hospital within the period from August to December 2020 to assess the prevalence of insomnia throughout COVID-19 Pandemic. We comprised HCWs (they were physicians, nursing specialists, nursing technicians, Lab technicians, and technical radiologists) who dealt COVID-19 patients. HCWs on anti-psychotic drugs interfering with sleep rhythm were ruled out.


Results
This study was conducted on 427 HCWs with mean age 30.59±5.19 years, majority of studied HCWs were females (76.8%). The majority of HCWs were physicians (71.4%). The prevalence of insomnia among studied HCWs was 78.7%. 60.7% of HCWs had anxiety and 95.3% had depression. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between insomnia total score and fatigue total score and Epworth sleepiness scale.


Conclusion
From this study, we could conclude that during COVID-19 pandemic there was high prevalence of insomnia among HCWs, most of them with subthreshold to moderate insomnia.