The Prevalence of Symptoms of Shift Work Disorder (SWD) among Nurses in the Northwestern Region, Saudi Arabia

Aims: This is the first study investigating the prevalence of SWD concerning depression, anxiety, insomnia, and fatigue in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This study looks at the relationship between SWD Symptoms and shift work per week and work hours per week. Methodology: This study makes use of the descriptive-correlational design, and there are 250 respondents. The focus of this study is the government hospitals in Ha 'il, Saudi Arabia. This study used a combination of established questionnaires which are: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Epworth Sleep Scale, and Fatigue Severity Scale. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 was used in the analysis of data. Frequency, percentage, and standard deviation, mean and Pearson-r was utilized. Results: The mean score for SWD symptoms are as follows: anxiety is 6.20, depression is 6.80, insomnia is 8.07, and fatigue is 35.28. On the relationship between shift work per week and SWD Pearson-r revealed scores (r=0.05, n=199, p=0.50), (r=0.11, n=199, p=0.14), (r=0.04, n=199, p=0.60), (r=0.11, n=199, p=0.14) for anxiety, depression, insomnia, and fatigue respectively. Finally for the relationship between work hours per day and SWD symptoms, Pearson-r revealed scores (r=0.25, n=199, p=0.001), (r=0.26, n=199, p=0.03), (r=0.16, n=199, p=0.001), (r=0.25, n=199, p=0.03) for anxiety, depression, insomnia, and fatigue respectively. Conclusion: This study found out that the most prevalent shift work symptom is slight dozing. Shift work per week does not influence the prevalence of shift work symptom; instead, working hours per day has a minimal influence on the shift work symptom.