Correlation Between Body Mass Index and Sleep Quality among Indian Doctors: A Descriptive Study

Introduction: In the current scenario, clinicians are constantly subjected to high workload coupled with enormous amount of stress which can lead to both derangement of sleep and accumulation of body fat. Since they are the central pillar of healthcare industry, the health of doctors themselves is an extremely important factor in pursuit of a healthy and disease free society. Aim: To determine the effect of Body Mass Index (BMI) on quality of sleep in clinicians and to establish a relation between obesity and sleep pattern of clinicians. Materials and Methods: The present descriptive study was conducted on 400 doctors working in Outpatient Department (OPD) clinics of various departments at Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar and OPDs of NIMS Hospital, Jaipur, India, from July 2019 to June 2021. BMI was calculated as ratio of weight (kg) to the square of height (m). Sleep quality was assessed by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire as a Global Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. BMI and sleep quality were checked for inter-relationship using various statistical methods like Chi- square test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), student t-test and Pearson’s correlation. Results: In the present study, 200 were males and 200 were females. Most of the participants were in the age group of 41- 50 years. A 51.4% of participants with BMI >25 kg/m2 had poor sleep quality which was significantly higher when compared with participants with BMI <25 kg/m2 (33.5%). Sleep quality had no significant bearing with gender. Further, it was found that surgical specialists had poorer sleep when compared with their medical counterparts. Conclusion: The results of the present study showed a significant association and linear correlation between sleep quality and overweight/obesity status. This information serves as an awareness and warning signal for the clinicians to safeguard their own health.