Evaluation of the relationship between iron deficiency anemia and SLEEP disorders

Introduction and Aim: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most common type of anemia. In case of iron deficiency, it may affect sleep disturbance and thus sleep quality in patients due to impaired monoamine oxidase activity. In this study, we aimed to evaluate sleep quality in adult patients diagnosed with IDA. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive and cross-sectional study, 78 patients who applied to the Family Medicine outpatient clinics of Düzce University Research and Practice Hospital with various complaints and were found to have iron deficiency anemia in the examinations and 74 healthy controls of similar age and gender were included in the study. Socio-demographic form, PUKI and PHQ-9 questionnaire were used in the study. Results: In the study, 67.9% of the patient group had poor sleep quality (n=53), and 32.1% had good sleep quality (n=25). It was observed that 37.8% of the control group had poor sleep quality (n=28), and 62.2% had good sleep quality (n=46). When the patient and control groups were compared, the sleep quality of the patient group was found to be significantly worse (p<0.001). It was determined that the patient group scored significantly higher in terms of subjective sleep quality, sleep delay and sleep duration (p=0.001, p=0.001, p=0.025, respectively). Depression levels were found to be significantly higher in the patient group (p<0.001). A moderate positive correlation was found between PUKI and PHQ-9 scores in the patient group (r=0.449; p<0.001). When PUKI and PHQ-9 were grouped according to their severity, there was again a significant relationship between them (p=0.002). Conclusion: Our study has shown that there is a relationship between iron deficiency and sleep disorders that remains to be clarified. As sleep quality decreases, the severity and visibility of depression increase. In addition, unlike the few studies on this subject, our study revealed that IDA can shorten the sleep duration. Keywords: Anemia, Iron, Sleep, Depression