Epidemiology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Objective: To examine Chinese adolescents? sleep habits, sleep problems, sleep hygiene, and their associations with mental health disabilities. Methods: A random sample of 4966 adolescents aged around 11-20 years participated in a cross-sectional survey. Adolescent Sleep Wake Scale (ASWS), Adolescent Sleep Hygiene Scale (ASHS) and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) were used to collect information on adolescents? sleep behaviors and mental health status respectively. Results: The multivariate logistic regression identified, after controlling for all confounders, five sleep variables were associated with mental health disabilities. The five factors covered three domains: Sleep habits (go to bed late during weekdays [OR =1.65, CI: 1.14-2.39, p=0.008] ), sleep problems (difficulties maintaining sleep [OR=2.73, CI: 1.69-4.41, p<0.001], and sleep-wake transition disorders [OR=1.48, CI: 1.08-2.02, p=0.014]), and sleep hygiene (poor psychosocial condition at bedtime [OR=2.52, CI: 1.81-3.50, p<0.001], and irregular sleep schedule [OR=2.04, CI: 1.49-2.80, p<0.001]). Conclusion: In adolescents, sleep habits, sleep problems, sleep hygiene are associated with mental health disabilities, indicating the existing mental health disabilities in adolescents could be, at least partly, intervened by going to bed earlier during the weekdays, by treating difficulties maintaining sleep, and sleep-wake transition disorders, and by mental intervention, by improving the sleep hygiene routine.

Biography

Jinwen Zhang is a graduate student of Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine. Her major is preventive medicine.