Surveying medical interns’ visual short-term memory and response inhibition function before and after a night shift, sleep quality and smoking habits in Rasht 2020: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Physicians whether during training years or working years are involved with the shift work system. Night shifts and the sleep deprivation that ensues have many adverse effects both physical and mental. Hence any decrease in doctors’ mental capacities will potentially put his and his patients’ health at risk, we decided to conduct a study to check medical interns’ Visual Short-Term Memory (VSTM) and Response Inhibition Functions changes after a night shift compared to the day before.

Materials and Methods: In this study, 32 medical interns from the Guilan University of Medical Sciences were recruited by random sampling. Each participant completed a Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire and was asked about his/her smoking habit and prior night's sleep. Each examinee then was tested in the morning before and after the night shift for VSTM by forward Corsi Block Tapping Test (CBTT) and for Response Inhibition by Stroop Word/Color Test implemented in the PEBL software version 2beta6. The data were coded and analyzed in SPSS v21.

Results: There was no significant change in the intern's CBTT and Stroop Test results after a night shift and their VSTM and Response Inhibition Functions remained fairly intact. According to their PSQI results, 29 interns had poor sleep quality and only two had an acceptable PSQI score (5 or less).

Conclusion: We argued that the consistent results of the CBTT and the Stroop Color Test could be due to many causes from small sample size to overall lower function under chronic sleep deprivation.