Perceived social support and sleep quality in patients with arteriosclerotic obliterans: The mediating roles of psychological flexibility.
Ying Lu, Hongyan Gan, Yanyan Yuan and 4 others
PMID 36282949WHAT IT FOUND
Among patients with arteriosclerotic leg disease, more perceived social support was linked to better sleep, and was partly associated with less psychological inflexibility.
Nurses can ask about sleep, pain and support. This survey cannot show treatments improve sleep.
Key findings
01The 172 analysed patients had a mean sleep-disturbance score of 12.12 ± 3.01 on the 0-21 Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, above the 7-point threshold for sleep disorder.
02Perceived social support scores were negatively associated with sleep-disturbance scores (r = -0.577), while psychological inflexibility scores were positively associated with sleep-disturbance scores (r = 0.553).
03The mediation model showed an indirect association from perceived social support to sleep-disturbance scores through psychological inflexibility; the indirect effect was β = -0.064 and accounted for 30.33% of the total effect.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was a one-time survey, so it cannot show that social support or psychological flexibility cause better sleep, or that changing them improves sleep. The sample came from one vascular surgery department in one Chinese province and used convenience sampling, so it may not represent other patients with arteriosclerotic leg disease. Most participants were male, older and living in villages, and only 172 were analysed after 9 questionnaires were excluded, which limits how broadly the findings apply. All key measures were self-report, including sleep, social support and psychological flexibility, so recall or reporting bias is possible. The study did not test any nursing, rehabilitation or psychological intervention.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Science and Technology key research project (20203BBG73047). The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that improving social support or psychological flexibility will improve sleep in patients with arteriosclerotic leg disease. The study measured associations at one time point in 172 patients and did not test an intervention.