Association of stress and sleep quality among the health sciences students: An analytical study

Abstract

Background: Stress termed as a state of both mental and physical tension and sleep quality defined as how well an individual sleeps, stress and sleep quality regarded as significant physical and mental health determinants.

Objectives: To determine frequency of stress and sleep quality and to determine association between stress and sleep quality among health sciences students of Sialkot.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted after ethical approval on a sample of 264 students in Sialkot. A convenient sampling approach was utilized. The sample was gathered from private medical colleges of Sialkot having undergraduate health sciences students. Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was employed to assess the levels of stress in students and Pittsburg sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used for student's sleep quality. The Data was analyzed through SPSS software, version 22. Chi-square test was used (p-value ≤0.05 was considered significant).

Results: Study comprised of 264 undergraduates having a mean age of 20.82±1.34 including 224 (84.4%) females and 40 (15.2%) males. Study showed high prevalence of stress and poor sleep quality with statistically significant association (p=0.027). Majority of students were experiencing poor sleep quality 232 (87.9%). 15 (5.7%) participants had low stress, 191 (72.3%) students were at the level of moderate stress and 58 (22%) were at severe stress level due to bad sleep quality.

Conclusion: The study concluded that there was high frequency of stress and poor sleep quality with significant association between stress and sleep quality but no significant association with demographics in targeted health sciences undergraduate students in Sialkot.