Women on dialysis were more stressed, slept worse during COVID-19 emergency vs. men
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Women on dialysis were more stressed and had worse sleep than men during the COVID-19 emergency.
- Women on dialysis should receive “special consideration,” especially regarding sleep quality, researchers wrote.
During the COVID-19 pandemic state of emergency, women on hemodialysis were more stressed, slept worse and had greater changes in their diet compared with men, according to results of a small, survey-based study in Japan.
Yuka Kawate, MS, and colleagues wrote in Journal of Renal Nutrition that data indicate “women are more likely to be exposed to mental and physical instability than men.” The researchers added that women on dialysis should be given special consideration to sleep quality, which in dialysis patients “is associated with a relative risk of death, depression and lower [quality of life].”
The cross-sectional study surveyed 1,005 patients on dialysis in the Kyoto prefecture of Japan regarding sleep, stress and diet before and during the country’s “request for self-restraint” to control the spread of COVID-19. This period lasted from April to May 2020.
According to the results, women on dialysis had significantly higher stress scores and sleep disorders scores than men. Women were significantly more likely to answer “bad” for nine of 12 stress-related questions and their hours of sleep decreased (before, 6.43 ± 1.16 hours vs. during, 6.09 ± 1.44 hours, P = 0.010). Men showed no change in bedtime, wake-up time or hours of sleep during the state of emergency.
Women ate significantly fewer staple foods, such as rice, bread, noodles and cereal, during lunch and dinner compared with men. Women also ate out significantly less often and had a significant increased use of home-delivered lunch boxes and frozen, canned and dried food. Men’s only change in eating habits was a decrease in eating out.
Limitations of the study included that “respondents’ memories are likely to have faded” during the period of the survey. Researchers wrote that the study is meaningful as it is the first to explore “the effects of diet, stress, and sleep among Japanese patients with dialysis before and during COVID-19 self-restraint.”
Collapse
Kawate Y, et al. J Ren Nutr. 2023;doi.org/10.1053/j.jrn.2023.06.002.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts