Impact of covid19 lockdown on sleep quality and acute psychiatric morbidity in medical students in Sudan. (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-COV-2) is an emerging infection causing a widely spread pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The current COVID-19 pandemic is promoting fear of falling sick, dying, helplessness, and stigma. Urgent and timely understanding of sleep quality and mental health status is needed to help the community. Our investigation designed to assess the degree of sleep disturbance and psychological impact of the lockdown among medical students at university of Khartoum.Objectives: this study conducted to assess the impact of covid-19 lockdown on sleep quality and acute psychiatric morbidities among medical students at university of Khartoum.Method: Institutional based cross sectional study was conducted among 326 participants from Khartoum university, faculty of medicine. Study participants were determined by two steps, stratified sampling followed by systematic sampling techniques. Data was collected using standardized questionnaire, entered and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 25.Results: out of the total 326 participants 211(64.7%0 were females, and 115(35.35) were males. 92 (28.2%) form the participants were good sleepers and 234 (71.8%) were poor sleepers, the prevalence of moderate to severe anxiety and depression in the participants was found 19.4%, 35.9% respectively. There was correlation between having poor sleep quality and depression among the participants.Conclusion: This study found that there is negative impact of the covid-19 lockdown on medical students, which we found that two thirds of the participants are poor sleepers with a predominance of the female gender among them, One third of the participants had moderate to severe depression which also affects the female more than the males and the junior students more than the seniors, Fifth of the participants had moderate to severe anxiety which affect both gender equally but it did affect the junior students more than the seniors.