Sleep quality in middle-aged and elderly people during the COVID-19 pandemic

OBJECTIVE Investigation of the quality of sleep among people of middle and advanced age who received health services at the Health Center of Corinth during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD The research sample consisted of 190 people who attended the Health Center of Corinth from March to December 2021. The participants completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), which provides data on subjective sleep quality and duration over the preceding month, and a questionnaire covering their demographic and clinical characteristics. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 24.0 was used for data processing and analysis. RESULTS The participants were 124 (65.3%) women and 66 (34.7%) men, with a mean age of 53.0 +/- 11.77 years, most of whom (68.4%) suffered from chronic diseases. Regarding sleep quality, 67.4% reported poor sleep quality and 32.6% good sleep quality. Their mean score on the PSQI scale was 6.52 +/- 3.52, and the highest score was 17.0, on a range of 0-21. Statistically significant correlation was demonstrated between chronic diseases and the quality of sleep, but age and body mass index (BMI) did not appear to affect sleep quality; people with chronic diseases recorded a higher score on the sleep scale than those without health problems. CONCLUSIONS It is common for sleep quality to be negatively affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. All possible forms of specialized counseling or intervention are recommended to help individuals to deal with the negative consequences of the pandemic on their quality of sleep.