Relationship Between Covid-19 Anxiety and Quality of Life with the Mediating Role of Sleep Quality in People with Diabetes

Diabetes, as the most common metabolic disease in the world, poses numerous physical and mental problems to patients. Diabetic patients constitute one of the high-risk groups in the Covid-19 pandemic and need special health care. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between Covid-19-related anxiety and quality of life with the mediating role of sleep quality in people with diabetes.

This cross-sectional correlational study was performed on 200 diabetic people aged 25-70 years who were referred to the Sirjan Diabetes Association affiliated with Sirjan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services. The data were collected using the COVID-19 Anxiety Scale developed by Alipour et al. with a reliability coefficient of 0.919, the Diabetes Quality of Life Scale with a reliability of 0.77, and the Petersburg Sleep Quality Scale with a reliability of 0.86. The data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 23) at a significant level of 0.05.

Based on the findings, Covid-19-related anxiety had a significant inverse correlation with sleep quality and quality of life in people with diabetes; moreover, the quality of sleep had a direct and significant relationship with their quality of life. Furthermore,  the findings confirmed the mediating role of sleep quality in the relationship between Covid-19 anxiety and quality of life in people with diabetes (t≥ 1.96; P≤0.01).

As evidenced by the results of the present study, Covid-19-related anxiety can reduce the quality of life and sleep quality of people with diabetes, and poor sleep quality can reduce the quality of life. Therefore, the critical importance of this issue highlights the necessity of making interventions to improve the quality of life and sleep quality of patients with diabetes during the Covid-19 pandemic.