Caregiving-Related Sleep Problems and Their Relationship to Mental Health and Daytime Function in Female Veterans.

Song Y, Washington DL, Yano EM, McCurry SM, Fung CH, Dzierzewski JM, Rodriguez JC, Jouldjian S, Mitchell MN, Alessi CA, Martin JL. Caregiving-Related Sleep Problems and Their Relationship to Mental Health and Daytime Function in Female Veterans. Behavioral sleep medicine. 2018 Jul 1; 16(4):371-379.

Related HSR&D Project(s)

• IIR 13-058 – A Patient-Focused Approach to Insomnia Treatment for Women Veterans
• PPO 09-282 – Women Veterans with Insomnia: Characteristics and Treatment Preferences
• RCS 05-195 – Research Career Scientist Award
• RRP 12-189 – Characteristics and Treatment Preferences of Women Veterans with Insomnia

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: To identify caregiving-related sleep problems and their relationship to mental health and daytime function in female Veterans. PARTICIPANTS: Female Veterans (N = 1,477) from cross-sectional, nationwide, postal survey data. METHODS: The survey respondent characteristics included demographics, comorbidity, physical activity, health, use of sleep medications, and history of sleep apnea. They self-identified caregiving- related sleep problems (i.e., those who had trouble sleeping because of caring for a sick adult, an infant/child, or other respondents). Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4) was used to assess mental health, and daytime function was measured using 11 items of International Classification of Sleep Disorders-2 (ICSD-2). RESULTS: Female Veterans with self-identified sleep problems due to caring for a sick adult (n = 59) experienced significantly more symptoms of depression and anxiety (p < 0.001) and impairment in daytime function (e.g., fatigue, daytime sleepiness, loss of concentration, p < 0.001) than those with self-identified sleep problems due to caring for an infant or child (n = 95) or all other respondents (n = 1,323) after controlling for the respondent characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare providers should pay attention to assessing sleep characteristics of female Veterans with caregiving responsibilities, particularly those caregiving for a sick adult.