Effect of shift-work on sleeping quality of male factory workers in aseer industrial area, khamis mushayte, KSA

Abstract

Objective: To study and compare subjective sleep quality and the quality of life resulting from the volume of sleep over the last month among shift and non-shift workers. Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study was adopted. It included a representative sample of male factory workers in Aseer Industrial City, Saudi Arabia during October 2011.Out of 35 factories, 14 factories were selected randomly, and then from each selected factory, 24 workers were randomly invited to participate in the study. Half of these workers must be within shift-workers group and another half within daytime work group. A self-administrated questionnaire was used for data collection including demographic characteristics, questionnaires of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to measure the quality and patterns of sleep and Functional Outcome of Sleep Questionnaire (FOSQ) to measure the functional outcome resulting from sleep demand. Results: The study included 291 factory workers out of 336 invited to participate in the study, giving a response rate of 86.6%.Workers with good sleep quality represent 79.7% of non-shift group compared to only 32.4% of work shift group, p<0.001.The mean score of all components of PSQI were significantly higher among workers with shifts than those without shifts. In addition, the Global PSQI score was significantly higher among workers with shifts than those without shifts (7.04.1 versus 3.03.0). The mean score of the components of activity level, general productivity, social outcomes, and vigilance of FOSQ as well as the total FOSQ score were significantly higher among workers without shifts than those with shifts. There was a significant negative correlation between PSQI score and FOSQ score among workers of both groups. Conclusion: Findings of the present study showed that the sleep quality was significantly better in non-shift workers than shift workers. In addition, the functional outcome was significantly better among worker of non-shift group than those of shift group. Poor sleep quality among shift workers is significantly associated with greater dysfunction.