Parent and self-report of sleep-problems and daytime tiredness among adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease and their population-based controls

Study objectives: to evaluate the frequency of sleep problems and daytime tiredness among adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in comparison with their healthy peers.

Design: Parent and self-reports of sleep problems and daytime tiredness.

Setting: questionnaire-based postal survey.

Intervention: N/A.

Participants: one hundred sixty Finnish adolescents with IBD; 236 adolescents matched for age, sex, and place of residence; and the parents of both groups.

Measurements and results: Sleep Self-Report and sleep questions of the Child Behavior Check-List, and Youth Self-Report. The parents of adolescents with IBD reported in their index child more trouble sleeping (P < 0.01), more nightmares (P < 0.01), sleeping more than most children during the day/night (P < 0.001), and overtiredness (P < 0.001) than did the parents of control subjects. In contrast, adolescents with IBD themselves did not report more problems than their peers. However, in the group of patients with self-reported severe IBD symptoms, both the parents and the adolescents reported trouble sleeping and overtiredness more often (P values < 0.01) than in the group with mild symptoms or control subjects. Adolescents with severe IBD reported more often that their symptoms affected the quality of their sleep (P < 0.001) than did adolescents with mild disease.

Conclusions: adolescents with severe IBD symptoms have disturbed sleep and are overtired more often than are adolescents with mild IBD symptoms or control subjects. Thus, in adolescents with severe IBD symptoms, evaluating sleep is important in characterizing the disease burden. Both parent and adolescent reports are needed for comprehensive assessment of sleep in the young.