Background/Purpose:   Sleep is an important aspect in maintaining the body’s circadian rhythm and plays an important role in maintaining health. Disrupted or lower levels of sleep have been related to serious outcomes such as an increased risk of morbidities. Sleep disturbances and poor sleep quality are prevalent complaints in people with rheumatic disease and may exacerbate pain in this population, potentially leading to reduced levels of activity. The aim of this study was to investigate sleep quality, sleep disturbances and physical activity among Irish people who have Inflammatory Arthritis

Methods:  Members from Arthritis Ireland, a national charitable organisation for patients with arthritis, were invited to participate in a cross-sectional survey hosted on SurveyMonkey^(R)TM. Ethical approval was received. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests/Fisher’s exact tests were used to analyse the data using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22

Results:   Ninety (90) people with Inflammatory Arthritis responded and report an average of 5.7 (SD 1.46) hours sleep per night. Results found the mean number of years with inflammatory arthritis to be 10.09 (SD 9.92). A majority (61%) report their sleep quality as fairly bad/very bad, with 31% having taken medications at least once a week to help their sleep, over the previous month. Ninety three percent (93%) reported arthritis pain in the previous week, while 23% were limited a lot and 62% limited a little with moderate activities. A large majority report ‘pain’ (95%), ‘waking up in the middle of the night or early morning’ (97%) and ‘cannot get to sleep within 30 minutes’ (91%) as disturbances. There was a statistically significant association between longer years with symptoms (p=0.004), taking medication at least once a week (p=0.009) and limited in their activities (p=0.004), when rating their sleep quality as bad. When using the Short Questionnaire to Assess Health-enhancing physical activity (SQUASH), patients’ physical activity levels were a low 1,210 minutes per week, compared to other physical activity surveys from their healthy counterparts, even-though 72% believe it is important to measure physical activity. Of those getting less than 1,210 minutes per week of physical activity, 73% report their sleep quality as fairly bad/very bad, while 65% received more than the reported average of 5.7 hours sleep per night

Conclusion:   Irish people with Inflammatory Arthritis fall far below the ‘sleep needs spectrum’ with those having symptoms longer, taking medications regularly and having limitations with their activities, reporting poorer sleep quality. More research is needed with regards to investigating poor sleep quality and disturbances in order to promote health and well-being in people with Inflammatory Arthritis. In addition the effects of physical activity interventions on poor sleep needs to be examined to show if it is a positive non-pharmacological treatment approach for the management of poor sleep in patients with Inflammatory arthritis

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/sleep-and-physical-activity-a-nationwide-survey-among-people-with-rheumatic-disease-in-ireland/