Sleep disturbances in school-aged children 6-12 years during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey.
Fadime Ustuner Top, Hasan Huseyin Cam
PMID 34801326WHAT IT FOUND
Parent-reported sleep disturbance was common during the pandemic: 55.5% of 1040 Turkish schoolchildren had parent-reported sleep disturbance; bedtime resistance, sleep-onset delay, and sleep-duration problems were frequent, and younger age, poor family relationships, parental fear, household infection, and increased eating were associated.
Key findings
0155.5% of the 1040 children scored above the total Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire cut-off for sleep disturbance.
02The most frequent problems were sleep-duration disturbance (90.2%), sleep-onset delay (61.4%), and bedtime resistance (51.9%).
03After adjustment, higher odds of sleep disturbance were associated with age 6-8 years (AOR 1.65), poor family relationship (AOR 3.49), parents feeling frightened/apprehensive/helpless (AOR 1.66), household member positive (AOR 1.60), and increased eating frequency (AOR 1.46).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that any factor caused sleep disturbance. Sleep disturbance was measured by parent report on one questionnaire, not by objective sleep measurement or child report. Parents may have missed sleep problems, especially in older children who slept alone. Participants were recruited through social media by snowball sampling, not randomly, and the sample may not represent all Turkish children. The sample was mostly urban, mostly nuclear families, and mostly middle income, so it says little about other family settings.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest, and the research received no specific grant.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that reducing screen use will improve child sleep. Excessive screen use was associated in the simple comparison, but it was not significant after adjustment, and the study did not test any intervention.