The association between school-age children duration and quality of sleep and their psychoemotional status: a retrospective-prospective study

Summary. Getting enough sleep is essential for the physical and mental health of children and adolescents, therefore, the study of the impact of stress factors in this direction is relevant. The aim of the study was to study the characteristics of sleep in school-age children with various psycho-emotional statuses during the introduction of strict quarantine measures and after a lockdown compared to the period before the pandemic. Materials and methods. The analysis of sleep characteristics and mental health status in 2592 school-age children (1407 boys, 1185 girls) was carried out. The retrospective study was based on the results of the assessment using the DON questionnaire and during a pandemic was the RCADS-P-25 questionnaire. SPSS Statistics v.26.0 was used for statistical performance. Results. The proportion of school-age children with depressive manifestations during the pandemic increased by 13.3% (p <0.001) compared to the period before the pandemic and it is 21.5 ± 2.0% in 2021. The proportion of children with anxiety disorders is 6.9 ± 1.3% that corresponds to the period before the pandemic. It was determined an increase in the school-age children duration of sleep during the lockdown compared with other periods of the study by 30-40 minutes/day (p <0.001). It was found that during the lockdown period in 2021, the sleep duration of school-age children decreased by 5.5% compared to the data in 2020 (p <0.01). In the group without anxiety-depressive disorders after the lockdown, the sleep duration significantly decreased, and in the group with mental health disorders, the sleep duration did not statistically differ from the level established during the strict quarantine restrictions. Sleep quality disorders during the lockdown were detected in 29.8 ± 2.6% of children in the surveyed cohort, and in the period after the lockdown - in 31.5 ± 4.0%. In the group of children with anxiety-depressive disorders, a decrease in the duration of sleep was found in all periods of the study. Conclusions. A decrease in the duration of sleep with an increase in the proportion of children with depressive disorders in the second year of the pandemic indicates negative trends in the mental health of school-age children and requires improved preventive measures.