Prevalence Of Sleep Disturbances Among Primary Informal Caregivers To Persons With Mental Illness Attending The Neuropsychiatric Facility In Lagos, Nigeria: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Background : Sleep is a physiological process that is important to the physical and psychological  wellbeing of humans. Sleep can become disturbed for medical , psychological and environmental reasons. Studies from different parts of the world has shown that informal caregivers of chronically ill persons have high prevalence for sleep disturbances. There is a dearth of such studies among Nigerians.

Aim: To determine the prevalence of sleep disturbances among primary informal caregivers to persons with mental illness and to compare it with that obtained among non-caregivers within the same region.

Methods: This study was a crosssectional, comparative study conducted among 250 caregivers to persons with mental illness and 216 non-caregivers. All the subjects were randomly selected and had to meet the inclusion criteria. The selfadmini s tered ques t ionnai re contained the General Health Questionnaire-28 and a proforma which was designed to elicit sociodemographic data and the presence of sleep disturbance in the subjects within the last 6-12 months period.

Results: The prevalence of sleep disturbance was found to be significantly higher among caregivers  (27.7%) when compared with non-caregivers (12.3%). The general health questionnaire (GHQ) which is popularly used for screening for psychological distress was only able to pick out 53.3% of the caregivers with sleep disturbances. Amongst the caregivers, advancing age and belonging to a polygamous family setting were significantly associated with sleep disturbances.

Conclusion: Caregivers are at almost thrice the risk of sleep disturbances than the noncaregivers (OR = 2.7, CI= 1.26-1.74). Periodic screening of caregivers should be done with specific sleep instruments especially for those of them who operate dangerous machinery and commercial vehicles.

Keywords: Prevalence, Sleep disturbances, primary informal caregiver, persons with mental illness