Comparison of the Frequency of Sleep Disorders among Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the frequency of sleep disorder in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and type 2 diabetic patients, and to find out the relationship between sleep disorder and DAS?28 (disease activity score). Method: The Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PCQI) and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) were administered to patients with RA according and patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. DAS-28 score was used to define the disease activity of RA. The results of RA patients were compared with the results of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Results: The participants of this study comprised 39 patients with RA (10 men and 29 women) and 40 patients with type 2 DM (12 men and 28 women). With regard to the categories in PCQI, there was no significant difference in poor sleep quality between the two groups. The rate of poor sleep quality was 87.2% in patients with RA and 79.5% in patients with DM (p=0.545). Furthermore, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale scores did not indicate any significant difference between the two groups with regard to excessive daytime sleepiness. We did not find any correlation of DAS scores with ESS and PSQI scores (respectively p=0.419, p=0.465). Conclusion: Sleep disorders are common in both type 2 diabetic and RA patients. Sleep disorder is a factor that affects the quality of life. The high rate of sleep disorder in both chronic diseases points to the importance of evaluating the possibility of sleep disorders in patients with RA and DM.