The Impact Of The 2019 Novel Coronavirus Infection On The Sleep Of Children Aged 2-12

Objective: The 2019 novel coronavirus infection epidemic has spread rapidly in China,which has caused great harm and trauma to the whole society,and also causing many impacts on people’s daily life.To further investigate the impact of the epidemic on children’s sleep,this study conducted an online Chinese version of the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire(CSHQ)on children aged 2-12.Methods:Through the Wenjuanwang platform,parents of children aged 2-12 years old filled out CSHQ.A total of 610 cases were collected and included in the epidemic group.The children’s sleep time,the incidence of sleep problems,and the types of sleep problems during the epidemic were analyzed,and compared with the CSHQ survey results filled out by the parents of 468 normally developing children(control group)locally recruited in Xi’an,Jilin,Deyang,and Changsha from 2018 to 2019.Results: The time to fall asleep and wake up in the preschool subgroup of the epidemic group were delayed compared to epidemic group(P<0.05),and there was no significant difference in sleep time in the preschool and school-age subgroups between epidemic group and control group.The CSHQ total and subscale scores were higher in the epidemic group compared to the control group(P<0.05).In the epidemic group,the prevalence of overall sleep disturbance of CSHQ and sleep problems in the bedtime resistance,sleep onset delay,sleep duration,sleep anxiety,parasomnia,and daytime sleepiness subscales were significantly higher compared to the control group(P<0.05).In the epidemic group,the toddler subgroup and the preschooler subgroup scored higher in the bedtime resistance,sleep onset delay,sleep anxiety subscales than the school age subgroup(P<0.05),and there was no significant difference between the toddler subgroup and the preschooler subgroup;The score of toddler subgroup in the night wakings subscale was higher than that of the preschooler and school-age subgroups(P < 0.05),and there was no significant difference between the preschooler subgroup and the school-age subgroup;In the parasomnia subscale,the three age subgroups were significantly different from each other(P<0.05),score was higher in the younger children.Conclusion: This study found that the 2019 novel coronavirus infection epidemic may bring about a series of related stress events,which have a certain impact on children’s sleep,mainly manifested in changes of sleep time,increased incidence of sleep problems,and differences in sleep disturbance at different ages.It is suggested that in major public health events,we should pay attention to the differences in sleep problems of children of different ages,and active preventive and intervention measures should be taken for children’s sleep disturbance related to major public health events.