Poor sleep quality tied to greater disability in IBD patients

Poor sleep quality is common among patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) and appears to be associated with lower quality of life and greater disability, a recent study has found.

Researchers enrolled 166 IBD patients (mean age, 44.39±13.92 years; 52.41 percent male) in whom sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Other outcome tools included the IBD questionnaire (IBDQ), IBD-Disability Index (IBD-DI) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Majority had pathological PSQI scores (67.5 percent; n=112); poor sleep quality was found in 64.9 percent and 78.1 percent of participants in remission and with active disease, respectively. Sleep disturbances had the highest score of all the PSQI domains, while the habitual use of sleep medication scored the lowest.

Notably, more than half (55.4 percent; n=62) of those with poor sleep quality also suffered from poor quality of life and 65.2 percent (n=73) had a low disability score.

Multivariate regression models showed that low IBD-DI scores were more than thrice as likely to have poor sleep quality (odds ratio [OR], 3.6, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.77–7.29). A low IBDQ score had the same effect, but to a greater extent (OR, 3.8, 95 percent CI, 1.78–8.10).

Seventy-four participants accomplished the HADS, of whom 31 had anxiety and eight showed depressive moods. All patients with a depressive mood had sleep disturbances. Moderately positive correlations were also reported between PSQI and the HADS subscores for anxiety (p=0.006) and depression (p<0.001).