Association between perceived environmental pollution and poor sleep quality: results from nationwide general population sample of 162,797 people

Abstract

Objective/background: Perceived environmental pollution may play a significant role in understanding environmentally induced health-related symptoms. This study aimed to determine whether perceived environmental pollution is associated with poor sleep quality.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from a nationwide sample of 162,797 individuals aged ≥19 years from the 2018 Korea Community Health Survey. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used for assessing sleep quality. Five types of perceived environmental pollutants involving air, water, soil, noise, and green space were assessed. We investigate the association between perceived environmental pollution and poor sleep quality. We also investigated whether an increasing number of perceived environmental pollutants magnified the odds of poor sleep quality.

Results: The prevalence of poor sleep quality was 42.7% (n = 69,554), and 15.6%, 10.1%, 11.9%, 23.0%, and 11.5% reported perceived environmental pollution concerning air, water, soil, noise, and green space, respectively. A perception of air, soil, or noise pollution was significantly associated with poor sleep quality. In addition, those perceiving a greater number of environmental pollutants had significantly higher odds of poor sleep quality. Notably, this association was magnified in individuals living in rural areas.

Conclusions: Perceived environmental pollution was significantly associated with poor sleep quality. Our results suggest that a more comprehensive exposure to environmental pollution may not only have a worse effect on health outcomes including sleep quality.