Sleep disorder experienced by healthcare nurses after terminating Zero-COVID-19 policy

TL;DR

After China ended its Zero-COVID-19 policy, most healthcare nurses experienced significant sleep problems, with younger and frontline nurses being most affected.

Contribution

This study identifies the prevalence of sleep disorders among Chinese healthcare nurses post-Zero-COVID-19 policy and links it to age and frontline work.

Findings

96.44% of nursing staff experienced sleep disturbances after the Zero-COVID-19 policy ended.

Younger nurses (16–25 years old) had less sleep difficulty compared to older nurses.

Front-line nurses were more likely to experience severe sleep difficulty.

Abstract

Medical staff, especially nurses, suffered great anxiety and stress from the COVID-19 pandemic, which negatively affected their sleep quality. In this study, we aimed to analyze the sleep quality of nursing staff after terminating the Zero-COVID-19 policy in China.

506 participants were involved in our study. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to evaluate the sleep status of the participants. Binary regression was performed to evaluate the impact factors related to sleep difficulty.

The majority of participants (96.44%) suffered from sleep disturbances. There were significant differences in age, education level and front-line activity between participants with good sleep quality and sleep difficulty. Younger age (16–25 years old) was independently associated with less sleep difficulty, while front-line activity was independently associated with severe sleep difficulty.

Sleep disorder was very common among nurses after ending the Zero-COVID-19 policy in China. More front-line nurses suffered severe sleep difficulty in particular, which should be worthy of attention.