Correlation Between Chronotypes and Depressive Symptoms Mediated by Sleep Quality Among Chinese College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Run Zhang; Genlong Jiao; Yijia Guan; Qiaoting Huang; Jiyang Pan

doi:10.2147/NSS.S403932

Correlation Between Chronotypes and Depressive Symptoms Mediated by Sleep Quality Among Chinese College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nat Sci Sleep. 2023 Jun 30:15:499-509. doi: 10.2147/NSS.S403932. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Run Zhang¹, Genlong Jiao², Yijia Guan³, Qiaoting Huang², Jiyang Pan²

Affiliations

¹ Students' Affairs Division, Jinan University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
² The First Affiliated Hospital, Jinan University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
³ School of International Studies, Jinan University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the mental health of the population. The current study aimed to determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms and sleep disturbances among Chinese college students during the COVID-19 pandemic and investigate the correlations between chronotypes, sleep quality, and depressive symptoms.

Participants and methods: In the current study, 2526 college students responded anonymously to an online questionnaire survey from 26 May 2020 to 20 July 2020. The participants' chronotypes, sleep quality, and depressive symptoms were evaluated using the Chinese version of the Morning and Evening Questionnaire-5 (MEQ-5), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Sociodemographic information of the participants was also acquired. Statistical analyses were performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 19.0 software, with the mediating effect assessed by Hayes' PROCESS Macro.

Results: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of depressive symptoms and sleep disturbances among Chinese college students surveyed was 54.95% and 48.18%, respectively. From absolute evening chronotype to absolute morning chronotype, the surveyed college students' chronotypes were negatively correlated with their depressive symptoms. Moreover, the mediation analysis showed that the correlation between chronotypes and depressive symptoms was fully mediated by sleep quality. Eveningness college students with poorer sleep quality were more likely to report higher levels of depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that during the COVID-19 pandemic, delayed circadian preference (ie, eveningness) may be linked to worse depressive symptoms among Chinese college students, and call for more attention to the sleep quality of Chinese college students as sleep quality fully mediated the correlation between chronotypes and depressive symptoms among them. Reasonable adjustment in bedtime/circadian preference and improvement in sleep quality may help to reduce the prevalence and severity of depressive symptoms among Chinese college students.

Keywords: COVID-19; chronotype; college student; depressive symptom; sleep quality.

Grants and funding

The present study was funded by the Science and Technology Projects in Guangzhou (202201010731), the Youth Research Projects of Guangdong Province (2020WT013), and the National Steering Committee for Medical Professional Degree Education (B3-YX20190604-05).