Sleep Quality among Pre-Clinical Medical Students in Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Malaya, Malaysia

Introduction: Poor sleep quality among university students has become an important issue to be concerned as it can hugely influence the students especially on their academic performance. However, there are inadequate studies published on the sleep quality of medical students in Malaysia. Objective: This study aimed at determining the sleep quality of pre-clinical medical students in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Malaya (UM). Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that used self-administered questionnaire to collect data from the pre-clinical medical students of UPM and UM. Sleep quality of the students was measured using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire. All data were analysed by SPSS version 21. Results: Findings revealed that 63.9% respondents with poor sleep quality (PSQI score: more than 5). The prevalence of poor sleepers in UM (67%) was slightly higher compared to UPM (60.9%). However, the comparison of PSQI score showed no significant difference between UPM and UM respondents (p = 0.082). Meanwhile, the average sleep duration per night among respondents was 5 hours 39 minutes (± 1.21 hrs), whereas only 6.1% students practiced recommended sleep value per night ( 7 hrs). Significant association was found between caffeine intake and sleep quality. Besides, this present study showed no association between sleep quality with gender and year of study. Conclusion: Majority of the pre-clinical students in UPM and UM had poor sleep quality and short sleep duration. Only a small number of students practiced recommended sleep value per night.