Investigating the association between sleep quality and depressive symptomatology in post-secondary students

Introduction: Poor sleep quality is hypothesized to be associated with depressive symptomatology in undergraduate university students. However, high-quality epidemiological evidence about this association is lacking. Purpose: To determine whether poor sleep quality is associated with depressive symptomatology in undergraduate university students. Methods: I conducted two studies of post-secondary students. First, I systematically reviewed the literature on the association between poor sleep quality and depressive symptomatology. Second, I measured the cross-sectional association between poor sleep quality and moderate to extremely severe depressive symptomatology in undergraduate students enrolled in two faculties at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology during the 2017 Fall academic term. Results: After screening and critically appraising all relevant articles, 11 of 12 studies reported a significant association between sleep quality and depressive symptoms. Subsequently, results from the cross-sectional study show that students who reported poor sleep quality were more likely to report moderate to extremely severe depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Both studies suggest that poor sleep quality is associated with depressive symptomatology in post-secondary students. Cohort studies are needed to determine whether poor sleep quality is an independent risk factor for depressive symptomatology in this population.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Health Sciences (MHSc)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Community, Public and Population Health

Grantor

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Fynn-Sackey, Nancy

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Côte, Pierre
• Papaconstantinou, Efrosini

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10155/2070

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ontariotechu.scholaris.ca:10155/2070