Aim: To assess insomnia and sleep quality in primary care physicians from a gender perspective.
Subjects and methods: A representative sample of 240 physicians was drawn from 70 medical centers from the Madrid Autonomous region. The participation rate was 71.6%. The questionnaire included sociodemographic data, insomnia symptomatology using DSM-IV criteria and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).
Results: 18.8% of the total sample met DSM-IV criteria for insomnia diagnosis, with higher frequency among women (23%) compared to men (9.6%). The same pattern appeared for early morning awakening and daytime impairment. Results of logistic regression analyses showed that, after controlling for sociodemographic variables, this relationship between gender and insomnia remained significant. Furthermore, the results indicate that women scored significantly higher than men on global sleep quality and on its components. A PSQI global score = or > 5 is an optimal cut-off score for distinguishing good sleepers from subjects with clinical sleep problems. Following this criteria, 35.4% of physicians had sleep problems, with a significant higher prevalence among women (40% vs. 25.3%).
Conclusions: The data indicates that the prevalence of sleep disturbances is high among primary care physicians, especially among women.