Depression and Sleep Quality of Obstetricians

Abstract

Background and Objective Obstetricians play a pivotal role in pregnancy and delivery. Also, they frequently encounter common comorbidity, such as pregnancy-related depression. We investigated the depression and sleep status of obstetricians in South Korea. Methods This is a questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey, carried out from December 2019 to January 2020. We asked board-certificated obstetricians to complete a series of questionnaires, including demographic information, the Beck Depression Inventory-2 (K-BDI), Pittsburgh sleep quality index (K-PSQI), insomnia severity index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and an acronym Snoring, Tiredness, Observed apneas, and high blood Pressure (STOP). Results A total of 107 obstetricians completed the questionnaires. Their mean age was 50.60 ± 7.83 years, and 83 (77.6%) were male. The average years after the board certification was 17.80 ± 7.62 years. They worked 68.90 ± 19.61 hours a week, and slept for 7 hours (06:59:20.75 ± 01:08:21.63), approximately. The number of duty days and deliveries in the last month were 6.44 ± 4.35 and 28.95 ± 25.16 per month, respectively. Forty-five (42.1%) obstetricians had poor sleep quality, 22 (20.6%) had suspicious insomnia, and 45 (42.1%) had significant depression. In multiple regression analyses, K-PSQI (standardized β = 0.492, p < 0.001) and the number of deliveries in the last month (standardized β = 0.453, p < 0.001) showed significant influence upon K-BDI. Conclusions The risk of depression increased by 8.8% as another monthly delivery was performed. A point increase in K-PSQI increased the risk of depression by 49.6%. The worse the sleep quality, and the more frequent the deliveries, the more depressed the obstetrician was.

Keywords

• sleep
• depression
• physicians
• obstetrics