Abstract
BACKGROUND Sleep disorder, brings in many physical, behavioral, and mental problems. Applying continuous care model leads to proper recognition of the patient’s problems and involves the patient in solving health problems. This study aimed to determine the effect of continuous care model on the quality of sleep in menopausal women. METHODS AND MATERIALS A random clinical trial study was carried out with participation of 110 menopausal women visiting Kermanshah-based clinics (the west of Iran) in 2017. The participants were randomly assigned to intervention (n=55) and control (n=55) groups. The control group received the routine cares and in addition to the routine cares the intervention group attended four weekly group consultation sessions (60-90min). The quality of sleep in the two groups was assessed using Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index before, immediately after, and one month after the intervention. Data analyses were done using independent t-test, ANOVA with frequent measures, Friedman’s test, Wilcoxon’s post hoc test, and X2 test in SPSS (24). RESULTS The mean scores of quality of sleep before and after the intervention were significantly different in the intervention group (p=0.001). There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of quality of sleep before (p=0.140) and immediately after the intervention (p=0.168). However, one month after, the difference between the two groups was significant (P<0.001). CONCLUSION Implementation of the continuous care model led to an improvement of quality of sleep in the menopausal women.