Sleep Quality in Iranian Hemodialysis Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Hemodialysis is a major therapeutic method for many chronic kidney disease patients that causes complications. One of these complications tends to be sleep disorders. This study was performed through systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the prevalence of low sleep quality in hemodialysis patients in Iran.

Journal papers written in English and Persian searched from January 2000 to July 2018 were selected. The search keywords included (Prevalence OR Epidemiology) AND (hemorenodialysis OR hemodialysate OR 'intermittent chronic haemodialysis' OR 'intermittent chronic hemodialysis' OR 'intermittent haemodialysis' OR 'intermittent hemodialysis' OR 'kidney dialysis' OR 'renal dialysis') AND ('sleep problem' OR 'sleep disturbance' OR 'sleep disorder' OR 'sleep quality' OR 'chronobiology disorders' OR dyssomnia). To determine the pooled prevalence, the stochastic DerSimonian-Laird model was used, computing the effect size with its 95 per cent confidence interval. The main international electronic databases were Embase, PubMed/MEDLINE, ISI/Web of Science (WOS), Scopus, Psych INFO, and Iranian databases such as MagIran, SID and Irandoc. The data were analysed using the Stata (version 13.0).

After searching through the databases and other resources, 21 articles (7 in Persian and 14 in English language) were included. The overall prevalence of low sleep quality in dialysis patients was 75.30 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval, 70.08-82.50). The heterogeneity study showed moderate heterogeneity among studies (I² = 50.30 per cent, p < 0.05).

The results of this study showed that the prevalence of low sleep quality in hemodialysis patients has become a common problem. Thus, patients' sleep quality need to be evaluated periodically.