INVESTIGATION OF SLEEP QUALITY IN INDIVIDUALS WHO STUTTER
1Karabük Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Hastanesi, Kulak Burun Boğaz, Karabük, Türkiye2Karabük Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Hastanesi, Odyoloji, Karabük, Türkiye
3Anne Şefkati Özel Eğitim ve Rehabilitasyon Merkezi, Odyoloji, İstanbul, Türkiye Objectives: Stuttering is a speech fluency disorder that occurs during language and speech development and disrupts speech and communication. Anxiety disorders are common in stutterers. Sleep quality is affected by psychological states, such as stress, depression, anxiety, and tension. The aim of this study is to investigate sleep quality of patients who stutter and to determine their association with anxiety.
Methods: Twenty-seven individuals who stutter and 30 individuals who speaking fluently as a control group were included in the study. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were applied to all participants. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores were compared between the individuals with stuttering and the control group.
Results: Poor sleep quality was observed in 14 (51.8%) of the individuals with stuttering and 13 (43.3%) individuals in the control group. However, there was no significant difference in sleep quality among the groups (p> 0.05). The mean anxiety and avoidance scores of individuals with stuttering were higher than the control group (p <0.05). Stuttering individuals with poor sleep quality had higher anxiety and avoidance scores than stuttering individuals with normal sleep (p <0.05).
Conclusion: The abstinence and anxiety levels of individuals who have stutter are higher than those of individuals who speaking fluently, but there is no difference in sleep quality of stuttering and control individuals. In the subgroup of individuals who stutter, those with poor sleep quality also showed higher levels of anxiety and social avoidance.
Keywords : Stuttering, Sleep disorders, Social anxiety disorder