Association between Caffeinated Beverages Consumption and Sleep Quality of Undergraduate Medical Students: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Caffeine is one of the most common brain stimulants used by people nowadays to stay awake. This is especially seen in youngsters including medical students around the world. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the association between caffeine intake and sleep quality of undergraduate medical students. Study Design:  A cross-sectional analytical study. Methodology: This study was conducted from January to February 2022 among undergraduate medical students (MBBS) in a private medical university in Malaysia. The respondents were recruited by purposive sampling and a self-administered validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was analysed using Epi Info software (version 7.2.5.0). The descriptive statistics was calculated as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and range. The Chi-square test was used in inferential statistics. Results: There were 111 students who agreed to participate in this study. After the data analysis and processing, 89.19% of the students reported of having low caffeine intake while 10.81% having high caffeine intake. The results showed that 53.15% of the students had good sleep quality while the remaining 46.85% had poor sleep quality. There was no significant association between age, gender, ethnicity, caffeine intake, and sleep quality. However, there was a significant association between the semester that the student was currently taking and sleep quality. Conclusion: Although there was no significant association between the caffeine intake and sleep quality, 46.85% of the respondents reported poor sleep quality. Therefore, it would be beneficial if sleep hygiene education sessions are included in university education programme.