The Effect of Sleep Quality on Mental Health Among Clinical and Non-Clinical Staffs

Sleep quality plays an important role in people's mental health. Until now, the comparison of factors affecting mental health among clinical and non-clinical workers has received less attention. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sleep quality and mental health and factors affecting mental health in a large working population. The present study was derived from the first phase of a cohort study of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences staff in 2019. Participants included 2921 employees. Demographic variables and job characteristics, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) were used for data collection. For finding factors affecting mental health, logistic regression was used. Clinical workers had lower mental health (P<0.001) and lower sleep quality (P=0.04) than others. The relationship between mental health and sleep quality was significant (P<0.001). The prevalence of poor sleep quality was 35.6% and for undesirable mental health was 27.8%. Marital status had a significant relationship with mental health (P=0.02). The chance of undesirable mental health decreased with age (OR: 0.98 (0.97, 0.99)). Women had twice undesirable mental health than men (OR: 1.99 (1.62, 2.50)). The odds of undesirable mental health in staff with poor sleep quality were about five times higher than others (OR: 4.80 (3.99, 5.76)). Sleep quality may be considered as a factor affecting mental health. Due to the importance of the issue, planning for the improvement of clinical workers' sleep quality seems to be necessary by health policymakers.