Sleep quality of Shanghai residents: population-based cross-sectional study

To estimate the prevalence of poor sleep and its risk factors for adults living in a suburban area of Shanghai with rapid urbanization.

A total of 37,545 residents who were aged 20 to 74 years and from the “Peak Program,” a community-based natural population cohort study, were included. Data on demographics, lifestyle, and physical health-related factors were collected using a face-to-face questionnaire interview. Sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and poor sleep was defined as a PSQI score above 7.

The overall mean of PSQI score was 3.69 ± 2.57 while the prevalence of poor sleep was 8.3%. The prevalence of poor sleep quality was higher in participants who were older than 40 years, had less education, smoked tobacco, had anxiety, and had a chronic disease (p < 0.05 for all comparisons). After adjustment for confounding, a logistic regression model indicated that poor sleep was associated with advanced age, smoking, anxiety, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and other chronic diseases (p < 0.05 for all comparisons). In addition, compared to women who were premenopausal, the naturally postmenopausal women (OR 1.675, 95% CI 1.44–1.94) and induced menopausal women (OR 2.26, 95% CI 1.81–2.82) were more likely to report poor sleep.

The prevalence of poor sleep among individuals who lived in the Songjiang District of Shanghai and were aged 20 to 74 years was remarkably lower than in the general population of China. Poor sleep was generally more common in middle-aged and elderly residents and in those suffering from anxiety and chronic diseases. Regular exercise, anxiety relieving, and treatment improvement of different chronic diseases may help sleep better.