ALARMING PREVALENCE OF POOR SLEEP AND ANXIETY IN MEDICAL STUDENTS

Abstract

Objective: Anxiety and sleep disorders have been reported to be common in medical students. This study aimed to determine the frequency of poor sleep quality and anxiety symptoms in medical students. Moreover, to reveal the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle data, perceptions of professional future, academic performance with anxiety, and sleep quality. Material and Methods: A total of 225 participants enrolled in the first through fifth years of education in Kafkas University’s Faculty of Medicine in the 2022-23 academic year participated in the study. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire encompassed sociodemographic data, lifestyle information that may affect sleep, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale. Statistical analyses were performed with R Statistical Software (v4.2.2; R Core Team 2022). Results: It was found that 76% of the participants had poor sleep quality according to the PSQI, while 31.56% of the participants had GAD-7 scores of 10 or above. There was a relationship between the poor sleep quality and anxiety of the participants (p