Sleep quality and shift work among South Korean public safety personnel: a cross-sectional study
Abstract
Background: To examine sleep quality across public safety occupations and work-schedule groups and determine whether shift work and exercise patterns were associated with poor sleep quality among South Korean public safety personnel (PSP).
Methods: This exploratory cross-sectional online survey included 1,403 PSP (781 military personnel, 406 police officers, and 216 firefighters); 535 office workers were included as a descriptive comparison group in Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) analyses. Global and component PSQI scores were compared using conventional or Welch one-way analysis of variance with post hoc tests. Firth penalized logistic regression examined associations with poor sleep quality (PSQI > 5) among PSP, with ordinal predictors modeled categorically and monthly duty days modeled continuously.
Results: Poor sleep quality was identified in 1,264 PSP (90.1%) and 446 office workers (83.4%). Police officers had the highest mean global PSQI score among PSP occupations (9.42). Shift-working PSP had higher global scores than non-shift PSP (9.00 vs. 8.20; p < 0.001), but shift-work status was not associated with poor sleep quality after adjustment. In the fully adjusted model, weekly exercise frequency was associated with poor sleep quality (overall p < 0.001), although some category-specific confidence intervals were wide. Each additional monthly duty day was associated with higher odds of poor sleep quality (odds ratio [OR], 1.13; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01–1.28; p = 0.038). Female sex (OR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.44–0.96) and nap durations of > 30 to < 60 min (OR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.23–0.72) or ≥ 60 min (OR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.15–0.51), compared with ≤ 30 min, were associated with lower odds of poor sleep quality.
Conclusions: Poor sleep quality was common among PSP. More detailed measures of schedule timing, workload, recovery opportunity, and activity context are needed to characterize occupational sleep burden.
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BibTeX
@article{sung2026sleep,
title = {{Sleep quality and shift work among South Korean public safety personnel: a cross-sectional study}},
author = {Jun-Young Sung and Hyuck Lee and Deokhwa Jeong and Sok Park},
journal = {BMC Public Health},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1186/s12889-026-30225-y},
url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-026-30225-y},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Sleep quality and shift work among South Korean public safety personnel: a cross-sectional study
AU - Jun-Young Sung
AU - Hyuck Lee
AU - Deokhwa Jeong
AU - Sok Park
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/03
JO - BMC Public Health
DO - 10.1186/s12889-026-30225-y
UR - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-026-30225-y
AB - Background: To examine sleep quality across public safety occupations and work-schedule groups and determine whether shift work and exercise patterns were associated with poor sleep quality among South Korean public safety personnel (PSP). Methods: This exploratory cross-sectional online survey included 1,403 PSP (781 military personnel, 406 police officers, and 216 firefighters); 535 office workers were included as a descriptive comparison group in Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) analyses. Global and component PSQI scores were compared using conventional or Welch one-way analysis of variance with post hoc tests. Firth penalized logistic regression examined associations with poor sleep quality (PSQI > 5) among PSP, with ordinal predictors modeled categorically and monthly duty days modeled continuously. Results: Poor sleep quality was identified in 1,264 PSP (90.1%) and 446 office workers (83.4%). Police officers had the highest mean global PSQI score among PSP occupations (9.42). Shift-working PSP had higher global scores than non-shift PSP (9.00 vs. 8.20; p < 0.001), but shift-work status was not associated with poor sleep quality after adjustment. In the fully adjusted model, weekly exercise frequency was associated with poor sleep quality (overall p < 0.001), although some category-specific confidence intervals were wide. Each additional monthly duty day was associated with higher odds of poor sleep quality (odds ratio [OR], 1.13; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01–1.28; p = 0.038). Female sex (OR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.44–0.96) and nap durations of > 30 to < 60 min (OR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.23–0.72) or ≥ 60 min (OR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.15–0.51), compared with ≤ 30 min, were associated with lower odds of poor sleep quality. Conclusions: Poor sleep quality was common among PSP. More detailed measures of schedule timing, workload, recovery opportunity, and activity context are needed to characterize occupational sleep burden.
SN - 1471-2458
ER -