Abstract

Background and objectives:The aim of the study is to assess the sleep habits and prevalence of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in Spanish health care workers and the relationship between sleep habits, EDS, anthropometric measurements, work shift, sleep apnea risk, and work commute traffic accidents. Patients and methods:We conducted a cross-sectional observational study on subjects undergoing an annual medical screening administered by the Occupational Risk Prevention Unit at a hospital in Spain, providing anthropometric data and self-completed questionnaires: Epworth Sleepiness Scale, sleep habits questionnaire, Berlin Questionnaire and self-reported "work commute" traffic accident. Logistic regression models were performed to analyze factors associated with EDS and work commute traffic accidents. Results:Five hundred and one hospital employees were studied (79% women), age 43.1 (11.9) yrs., 19.4% reported working a night shift, 6.6% showed EDS and 43.9% slept less than 7 hours on work days. Only in women night shift and sleep debt were significantly associated with EDS, (OR 2.64, p = 0.034 and OR 1.29, p = 0.044 respectively) and age and a night shift were significant predictors of body mass index (coefficient 0.12, p = 0.001 and 1.56, p = 0.003, respectively) and abdominal circumference (coefficient 0.29 p = 0.001 and 3.95, p = 0.003 respectively). "Work commute" traffic accidents, reported by 10.8% of respondents, were associated with dozing off while driving. Conclusions:Prevalence of EDS and insufficient sleep is consistent with what has been described in the general population in other countries. In women, EDS is associated with sleep debt and night shifts whereas night shifts and age are associated with overweight variables. Self-referred sleepiness while driving is a risk factor for traffic accidents on a work commute.

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