Impact of Sleep Disturbances on the Quality of Life Among Schizophrenic Out-patients of Jimma University Medical Center, Southwest Ethiopia: Hospital Based Cross-sectional Study

Current study was aimed to assess the impacts of sleep disturbances on patient’s quality of life.

Schizophrenia is a syndrome, which affects sleep. Up to 80% of schizophrenic patients complain of sleep disturbances which affect the quality of life

To assess the association of sleep disturbances and quality of life and other contributing factors among schizophrenic patients on follow-up treatment at Jimma University Southwest Ethiopia.

A cross-sectional study with a consecutive sampling of 411 out-patients at Jimma University medical center was employed from April 21-June 20, 2019. Sleep disturbances and the quality of life were assessed by Pittsburgh sleep quality index and WHOQOL-BREF, respectively. Epi data version 3.1 and SPSS version 23.0 software was used. Chi-square and independent samples t-test were used for association and P-value < 0.05 was considered for statistical significance.

Most participants had sleep disturbances and the mean score of positive scale on PANSS was higher for patients with sleep disturbances. About one-fourth of the patients had very good subjective sleep quality and > 85% of sleep efficiency was reported by 139 participants. More than half (51.1%) of the subjects had used sleep medication and the majority (64.7%) of them were reported daytime dysfunctions in the past month. The social domain (M±SD=3.92±2.51, t=8.46, p= <0.001, eta²=0.15) and overall WHOQOL (M±SD=57.60±16.87, t=9.24, p= < 0.001, eta²= 0.17) score had a large difference of means and about 15% and 17% of the variance in sleep disturbance have been explained.

Generally, the finding of the current study was in agreement with most of the previous studies and sleep disturbances respectively moderate to significant effects on the patient’s quality of life.