Impact of psychosocial determinants on sleep quality decreased during the COVID-19 lockdown: Evidence from an urban...

To explore the relationship between socioeconomic and health-related changes during the COVID-19 lockdown and sleep quality.

A panel study was conducted with 667 participants from the Argentine Social Debt Survey in 2019 (pre lockdown), 2020 (during lockdown), and 2021 (post lockdown). Generalized linear mixed-effects models were performed to explore the following predictors of self-reported sleep quality over time: age, educational level, living in poverty, employment status, place of residence, psychological distress, and health status.

Reporting poor health and residing in Buenos Aires were associated with poor sleep quality, independent of the lockdown. Advanced age emerged as a significant predictor of poor sleep quality after the lockdown. Differences in sleep quality associated with living in poverty and psychological distress disappeared during lockdown and resumed post lockdown.

This work highlights the importance of the dynamic interplay between socioeconomic and health-related factors when assessing sleep quality. In this urban Argentine panel study, the COVID-19 lockdown appeared to mitigate poverty-related disparities in sleep quality, underscoring the need to refocus attention on these vulnerable subpopulations in the post-lockdown period, when such disparities re-emerged.