EFFECT OF SLEEP HEALTH EDUCATION ON THE SLEEP QUALITY OF HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN HEALTH CLINICS: STUDY PROTOCOL

Background: Healthcare workers (HCW) are susceptible to develop poor sleep quality. Those with poor sleep quality are more likely to experience adverse effects on their health and work performance. Sleep health education could be beneficial to improve their sleep quality. Materials and Methods: All eligible HCW from the participating clusters (health clinics) will be recruited. A minimum of 210 participants will be required in the two arm, parallel, cluster randomised trial. Five clusters will be randomly allocated into either intervention group or control group respectively. Intervention group will be given sleep health education whereas control group will be given pre-existing occupational health module on mercury spillage management.   Result: The panel of subject experts will be consulted to develop the intervention module. For implementation, the intervention modules will be given to the participants from each group accordingly. For evaluation, sleep quality will be measured based on self-administered questionnaires at baseline and three months post intervention. Data analysis will be done by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Intention to treat analysis will be done with the level of significance set at 0.05 and confidence level at 95%. For bivariate analyses, chi square and logistic regression will be used for categorical variables whereas linear regression for continuous variables. For multivariate analysis, Generalized estimating equations (GEE) will be used to adjust for the clustering effect. Conclusion: Sleep health education, particularly on sleep hygiene practice is essential to improve HCW’s sleep quality. Keywords: study protocol, sleep health education, sleep quality, healthcare workers