Surveying medical interns’ visual short-term memory and response inhibition function before and after a night shift, sleep quality and smoking habits in Rasht ۲۰۲۰: a cross-sectional study

Introduction: Physicians whether during training years or working years are involved with the shift work sys tem. 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 m edical interns’ Visual Short Term Memory (VSTM) and Response Inhibition Functions changes after a night shift comp ared to the day before before. Materials and Methods: In this study, ۳۲ 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 ۲beta۶. The data were coded an d analyzed in SPSS v۲۱. 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 r esults, ۲۹ interns had poor sleep quality and only two had an acceptable PSQI score (۵ or less). Conclusion: We argued that the consisten t 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.

Keywords:

Night Shift , Intern , Visual Short Term Memory , Response Inhibition , Smoking , Sleep Quality