TY  - JOUR
AU  - Rajput, Gargi
AU  - Gao, Andy
AU  - Wu, Tzu-Chun
AU  - Tsai, Ching-Tzu
AU  - Molano, Jennifer
AU  - Wu, Danny T Y
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/2/2
TI  - Sleep Patterns of Premedical Undergraduate Students: Pilot Study and Protocol Evaluation
JO  - JMIR Form Res
SP  - e45910
VL  - 8
KW  - patient-generated health data
KW  - Fitbit wearables
KW  - sleep quality
KW  - premedical college students
KW  - sleep
KW  - sleep hygiene
KW  - student
KW  - colleges
KW  - university
KW  - postsecondary
KW  - higher education
KW  - survey
KW  - sleep pattern
KW  - medical student
KW  - adolescence
KW  - behavior change
AB  - Background: Poor sleep hygiene persists in college students today, despite its heavy implications on adolescent development and academic performance. Although sleep patterns in undergraduates have been broadly investigated, no study has exclusively assessed the sleep patterns of premedical undergraduate students. A gap also exists in the knowledge of how students perceive their sleep patterns compared to their actual sleep patterns. Objective: This study aims to address 2 research questions: What are the sleep patterns of premedical undergraduate students? Would the proposed study protocol be feasible to examine the perception of sleep quality and promote sleep behavioral changes in premedical undergraduate students? Methods: An anonymous survey was conducted with premedical students in the Medical Science Baccalaureate program at an R1: doctoral university in the Midwest United States to investigate their sleep habits and understand their demographics. The survey consisted of both Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire items (1-9) and participant demographic questions. To examine the proposed protocol feasibility, we recruited 5 students from the survey pool for addressing the perception of sleep quality and changes. These participants followed a 2-week protocol wearing Fitbit Inspire 2 watches and underwent preassessments, midassessments, and postassessments. Participants completed daily reflections and semistructured interviews along with PSQI questionnaires during assessments. Results: According to 103 survey responses, premedical students slept an average of 7.1 hours per night. Only a quarter (26/103) of the participants experienced good sleep quality (PSQI<5), although there was no significant difference (P=.11) in the proportions of good (PSQI<5) versus poor sleepers (PSQI≥5) across cohorts. When students perceived no problem at all in their sleep quality, 50% (14/28) of them actually had poor sleep quality. Among the larger proportion of students who perceived sleep quality as only a slight problem, 26% (11/43) of them presented poor sleep quality. High stress levels were associated with poor sleep quality. This study reveals Fitbit as a beneficial tool in raising sleep awareness. Participants highlighted Fitbit elements that aid in comprehension such as being able to visualize their sleep stage breakdown and receive an overview of their sleep pattern by simply looking at their Fitbit sleep scores. In terms of protocol evaluation, participants believed that assessments were conducted within the expected duration, and they did not have a strong opinion about the frequency of survey administration. However, Fitbit was found to provide notable variation daily, leading to missing data. Moreover, the Fitbit app’s feature description was vague and could lead to confusion. Conclusions: Poor sleep quality experienced by unaware premedical students points to a need for raising sleep awareness and developing effective interventions. Future work should refine our study protocol based on lessons learned and health behavior theories and use Fitbit as an informatics solution to promote healthy sleep behaviors. 
SN  - 2561-326X
UR  - https://formative.jmir.org/2024/1/e45910
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/45910
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38306175
DO  - 10.2196/45910
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/45910
ER  -