Depression and Sleep Disturbance in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

The goal of this study was to examine the unique contributions of sleep disturbance to depression in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) after controlling for other contributing variables, including patient characteristics, self-efficacy, and physical activity. One hundred thirty-one outpatients diagnosed with COPD from 3 hospitals in South Korea participated in the study. Data were collected from March to June 2010 and analyzed with descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression using the SPSS WIN program. The level of depression reported in this study was 13.84. Sleep disturbance, not living with a spouse, and self-efficacy were all predictors of depression and accounted for 45% of the variance. These findings show the need to screen routinely for sleep disturbance in patients with COPD and support potential benefits of interventions to enhance self-efficacy and quality of sleep in reducing depression in COPD patients.