Sana El Mhamdi^1,2,3*, Imene Mlouki^1,2,3, Arwa Ben Salah^1,3, Briana N DeAngelis⁴, Ines Bouanene^1,3 and Mustafa al’Absi⁴

¹Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Monastir, Tunisia
²Department of Preventive and Community Medicine, University Hospital Tahar Sfar, Mahdia, Tunisia
³Research Laboratory “Epidemiology Applied to Maternal and Child Health” 12SP17, Tunisia
⁴Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health, University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth, MN, USA
⁵Department of Occupational Medicine, University Hospital Tahar Sfar, Mahdia, Tunisia

*Corresponding Author: Sana El Mhamdi, Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Monastir; Research Laboratory “Epidemiology Applied to Maternal and Child Health” 12SP17, Tunisia University Hospital Tahar Sfar Madhia, Tunisia.

Received: January 27, 2022; Published: July 29, 2022

Abstract

The objective of our study was to investigate the relationship between ELAs and sleep disturbances among pregnant women in Tunisia.

We performed a prospective study on a sample of pregnant women in Primary Healthcare Centers in Tunisia during a year. ELAs were evaluated using the Adverse Childhood Experiences-International Questionnaire. Common Mental Disorders were evaluated using an Arab version of the Self-Reporting Questionnaire. Postpartum Depression was assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Sleep disturbances were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

The sample included 593 women. One out of three women endorsed four adversities, including household dysfunction (58.3%), physical abuse (40.0%), community violence (40.0%), and peer violence (39.3%). Half of the participants (52.4%) were exposed women to secondhand tobacco smoke.

Our findings confirm that ELAs and secondhand smoke predict sleep disturbances during pregnancy and the postpartum period.

Keywords: Adverse Childhood Experiences; Sleep Hygiene; Pregnancy; Tobacco Smoke Pollution; Tunisia

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Citation

Citation: Sana El Mhamdi., et al. “Early Life Adversities are Associated with Sleep Quality During Pregnancy and the Postnatal Period: A Longitudinal Study in Tunisia". Acta Scientific Women's Health 4.8 (2022): 40-47.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Sana El Mhamdi., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.