Sleep Apnea and Health among College Students

Objective: Healthy People 2020, which sets national objectives for U.S., have recently identified sleep health has a major public health issue. While studies on sleep deprivation among college students have shown high prevalence, little epidemiologic studies exist to evaluate the health and social outcomes associated with low sleep. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between sleep health to that of academic performance, psychological distress, and food insecurity. Methods: An existing database on health and behavioral outcomes of college students was utilized to conduct analyses. First, descriptive statistics was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of poor sleep health, followed by each outcome: academic performance, psychological distress, and food insecurity. Sleep health was assessed through the validated Berlin sleep health questionnaire. Academic performance was measured using grade point average. Kessler 6-scale was used to measure levels of psychological distress, while USDA questionnaire was used to assess food insecurity among college students. Next, bivariate analyses were conduct to evaluate the relationship between sleep health and each of the aforementioned outcomes. Results: Major results demonstrated that 76% of college students reported feeling tired, fatigue, or daytime sleepiness, while 88% reported less than 8 hours of sleep. Mean GPA was significantly lower among those who reported feeling tired/fatigue/daytime sleepiness (3.24 vs 3.04, p \u3c .001), compared to those who did not report such sleep health. There is a significant relationship between students who cut meals, did not have enough food to last, went hungry, and could not afford food and the average hours of sleep during school week. Prevalence of such poor sleep health also increased with psychological distress (no distress = 62%, mild-moderate = 87%, serious = 96%, p \u3c .05). Conclusion: Our study results demonstrate that poor sleep health is a major public health issue among college students and is negatively associated with mental health, food security, and academic performance among college students