Prevalence of sleep disorders in medical trainees

Introduction: The medical curriculum is responsible for sleep disorders among students as well as the trainees in medicine. The aim of this study was to screen sleep disorders among medical trainees including interns (in training for family medicine) and residents (in training for different specialties). Method: This is a cross-sectional study based on an online questionnaire published on the website of the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis with anonymous answers. This questionnaire was composed of Spiegel Sleep Questionnaire (score/30) and HAD Scale (score/21 for both anxiety and depression). Sleep disorders were diagnosed if Spiegel score was 7 respectively for each pathology. HAD scale only detects psycho-emotional disorders which must be confirmed by a psychiatrist. Results: Two hundred and thirty-seven medical trainees answered the questionnaire(94 interns, 143 residents). The sex-ratio was F/M=2.24 and mean age=27.4 years. Smoking was found in 15.2% of cases. The mean Spiegel score was 18.28 (16% had sleep disorders). The mean anxiety score was 10.48 (81% had anxious troubles). The mean depression score was 9 (65% had depressive troubles). There was no significant difference between results in interns and residents groups (19% of interns vs 14% of residents for sleep disorders; 80% of interns vs 81% of residents for anxiety; 65% of interns vs 64% of residents for depression). A high score of anxiety and depression was correlated to a low Spiegel score (p Conclusion: Medical trainees often face a huge workload with tiring guards and insufficient rest, which would explain the alarming results of this study.