Dear Editor,
The article by Raja and Bhasin1 assessed the independent predictors of sleep quality of 375 call handlers, who were under 40 years of age, in international call centers. Sleep quality was assessed using Athens insomnia scale. About 78% of participants were male and 83.5% of respondents were unmarried. Prevalence of insomnia, including suspicious cases, was 77.6%. By logistic regression analysis, independent predictors for sleep quality were found to be smoking, poor social support, heavy workload, lack of relaxation facility at office, and prolonged travel time to office. I would like to comment on their study.
First, Patterson, et al,2 reported that short and long sleep duration and late chronotype were associated with physical inactivity, sedentary behavior, and dietary problems. They also reported that percentages of current smoking in short and adequate sleepers were 9.8% and 6.9%, and percentages of current smoking in those with late and intermediate chronotypes were 14.9% and 7.4%, respectively. There is also clear evidence that smoking status is closely related to obesity,3 and that short sleep duration is significantly associated with subsequent obesity.4 Taking all these together, I recommend the authors including obesity index and chronotype as independent variables in their analyses too.
Related to the first query, there is a report on sex difference in the relationship between sleep and obesity.5 Li, et al,6 reported that short and long sleep duration are both risk factors for metabolic syndrome in men. In contrast, there is no significant association between sleep and metabolic syndrome in women. Raja and Bhasin1 handled mainly male workers, and the association in female works should therefore be assessed in further studies.
Finally, the working status is closely related to sleep and lifestyle factors.7,8 There is a significant association between sleep and mental health.9 Taken together, the causality of the association between sleep quality and its predictors should be comprehensively evaluated.
Conflicts of Interest:
None declared.
Cite this article as: Kawada T, Raja JD, Bhasin SK. Predictors of poor sleep quality in call handlers. Int J Occup Environ Med 2017;8:65-66. doi: 10.15171/ijoem.2017.987
References
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