Atividade física habitual, qualidade do sono e estresse ocupacional em guardas municipais do município de Fortaleza

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate the association between habitual physical activity, sleep quality, daytime sleepiness and occupational stress in municipal guards in the city of Fortaleza. The sample consisted of 131 subjects of both genders, mean age, 41 ± 9 years and range from 22 to 66 years, members of the operational and administrative

coordination. 64.1% (84) of the sample consisted of women. The variables were investi- gated according to the Habitual Physical Activity Questionnaire, the Pittsburgh Sleep

Quality Index - PQSI, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale - ESS and the Work Stress Scale. The descriptive analysis of the variables was presented as median and interquartile range, absolute and relative frequency. For comparison analysis, mean comparison and proportion comparison were used with the standardization of p<0.05 in the hypothesis tests. For the association analysis, Poisson logistic regression was used, requiring the

transformation of the occupational stress variable into a dichotomous one with the cate- gories “being” and “not having occupational stress”. The prevalence of subjects with high

and medium scores of habitual physical activity was 71% (93). There was a higher prev- alence of municipal guards with poor sleep quality (81.7%), although absence of sleepi- ness was observed in most subjects (77.1%). There was also a higher prevalence of

subjects with an intermediate/high level of stress (54.6%). We found an association be- tween habitual physical activity and sleep quality, with a prevalence ratio of 81% for sleep

improvement (p<0.05) (PR 0.813, 95% CI, 0.665 – 0.994) in subjects with a mean score

of usual physical activity. No associations were observed between habitual physical ac- tivity and the variables drowsiness and occupational stress. Most of the evaluated mu- nicipal guards had a moderate to high level of habitual physical activity, poor sleep quality

and intermediate/high occupational stress. Habitual physical activity increased the chance of these professionals to have good sleep quality.