Psychological Distress and Quality of Sleep among Urban Community People during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) had spread all over the world resulting in a large number of deaths. As COVID-19 is highly contagious and directly threatens life, it has caused high level of distress around the globe and impacts quality of sleep as well. This study aimed to analyse psychological distress and quality of sleep during COVID-19pandemic among community people. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted to find out psychological distress and sleep quality among 360 community people residing in Lalitpur, Nepal during COVID-19 pandemic from May to June 2021. Proportionate stratified and snowball sampling techniques were used to select the sample from each stratum. Data were collected through telephone interview using K6 Psychological Distress Scale and sleep quality scale. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Moderate to high psychological distress was found among 40% and 79.7% had good to excellent sleep. Gender and marital status had significant association with distress and history of COVID-19 had significant association with sleep quality at 95% of significance level (p-value=.00, .00, .00) respectively. Psychological distress and sleep quality had significant negative relationship (r=-.46, p=.00). Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that urban community people had low distress and most of the respondents had good sleep quality. Gender, marital status and history of COVID-19 were associated with distress level and sleep quality. Negative relationship between distress level and sleep quality suggests that there is a need to take consideration of distress level of community people so that their sleep quality can be promoted. Key words: Community, COVID-19 pandemic, Nepal, Psychological distress, Sleep quality.