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Occupational and environmental medicine
Original research
Impact of night shifts on sleeping patterns, psychosocial and physical well-being among healthcare professionals: a cross-sectional study in a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia
  1. Sultan Qanash1,2,3,
  2. Hassan Alwafi4,
  3. Shaima Barasheed5,
  4. Shahad Bashnaini5,
  5. Rahaf Andergiri5,
  6. Loujain Yaghmour5,
  7. Weam Murad1,
  8. Mohammed Shabrawishi6,
  9. Abdallah Y Naser7,
  10. Basim Alsywid8,9
  1. 1 Medicine Department, Minstry of the National Guard, Health Affairs, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
  2. 2 King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
  3. 3 King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
  4. 4 Faculty of Medicine, Umm Alqura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia
  5. 5 Department of Respiratory Therapy, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
  6. 6 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Al Noor Specialist Hospital, Mecca, Saudi Arabia
  7. 7 Department of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Clinical Pharmacy, Isra University Faculty of Pharmacy, Amman, Jordan
  8. 8 College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
  9. 9 Research and Development Department, Planning and Organizational Excellence Administration, Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Sultan Qanash; qanashsu{at}ngha.med.sa

Abstract

Background Shift work and night shifts are very common in healthcare organisations worldwide. However, healthcare professionals doing shift work and night shifts are exposed to several stressors with psychological, social, physical and sleeping consequences. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of night shifts on the psychosocial, physical well-being and sleeping patterns of healthcare professionals in Saudi Arabia.

Methods We conducted an observational cross-sectional study from July to September 2019 at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Convenience sampling technique was used to recruit healthcare providers to participate in the study. The outcomes measured included the effect of working hours of healthcare workers on psychosocial and physical health, substance use, and sleep quality and patterns. Pearson’s χ2 test was used to compare proportions, and Student’s t-test/Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the mean differences among different demographic groups.

Results A total of 352 healthcare providers were involved in the study, of whom only 272 were night shift workers. The mean level of job satisfaction was higher among day shift workers than night shift workers: the mean scores were 3.82 (SD=0.93) and 3.48 (SD=1.04), respectively, p=0.007. Moreover, social life was more adversely affected among night shift workers compared with day shift workers: 3.95 (SD=1.11) and 3.61 (SD=1.25), respectively, p<0.030. Likewise, family life was more adversely affected among night shift workers than day shift workers, with a mean of 3.92 (SD=1.10) and 3.50 (SD=1.21), respectively, p<0.006. Around 71% of night shift workers reported having poor-quality sleep compared with 50% of day shift workers (p=0.001).

Conclusion Quality of life is poor among night shift workers than day shift workers, particularly concerning sleep and social and physical outcomes. Further research is needed to investigate factors associated with the quality of sleep and the psychosocial and physical well-being of healthcare professionals working night shifts.

  • quality in health care
  • risk management
  • public health

Data availability statement

No data are available.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046036

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    Data availability statement

    No data are available.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @drbasim

    • Contributors SQ: conceptualisation; SBar, SBas, RA, LY and WM: data curation; BA, AYN and HA: formal analysis; SQ and HA: investigation; SQ, AYN and BA: methodology; SQ: project administration; SQ, SBar, SBas, RA, LY, MS and WM: resources; SQ: supervision; SQ and HA: validation; SQ, SBar, SBas, RA, LY, MS, WM and HA: writing of the original draft; all authors contributed to the writing, review and editing.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.