Weekly Research Seminar Series - Effect of COVID-19 quarantine on the sleep quality and the depressive symptom levels of university students in Jordan during the spring of 2020

This week, we are delighted to have our colleague Dr. Maha Saadeh, and her co-author Dr. Heba Saadeh for our Wednesday research seminar. They will be presenting their research on 'Effect of COVID-19 quarantine on the sleep quality and the depressive symptom levels of university students in Jordan during the spring of 2020'. 

Wednesday Research Seminar Series       

We are pleased to invite you to our Wednesday Research Seminar. It will be held online on 2^nd Marchfrom 4pm via Microsoft team platform. Wednesday Research Seminar Series was launched in 2008 and has featured more than 310 presentations to date. The seminars provide a forum for researchers to share their work. Presenters include faculty from Middlesex University Dubai and other universities in the United Arab Emirates, as well as researchers from other global institutions. Dr. Maha and Dr. Heba will deliver seminar on:       

“Effect of COVID-19 quarantine on the sleep quality and the depressive symptom levels of university students in Jordan during the spring of 2020"  

Heba Saadeh and Maha Saadeh

Abstract       

Having sufficient sleep at night plays an essential role in the efficiency of accomplishing everyday tasks and having good mental abilities. Globally, inadequate sleep is considered a public health epidemic, being linked to 7 of the 15 leading causes of death in the U.S. A study among Canadians reported that poor sleep quality with short sleep duration was prevalent, as 43% of men and 55% of women had a disturbance in sleeping or staying asleep. Several studies assess the sleep quality amid the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, during the 2 weeks of quarantine in February in China, the sleeping disorders were significantly increased in the age group of 18–24 years. Likewise, a study in Greece showed that although the quantity of sleeping hours increased in 66.3% of the study participants, the sleep quality decreases to 43%. This study was designed to assess the effect of COVID-19 home quarantine and its lifestyle challenges on the sleep quality and mental health of a large sample of undergraduate University students in Jordan. It is the first study applied to the Jordanian population. The aim was to investigate how quarantine for several weeks changed the students' habits and affected their mental health. Results show that the sleep quality of three-quarters of the participants was negatively affected by the extended quarantine. Nearly half of the participants reported poor sleep quality.

Biographies   

Dr. Heba Saadeh is an Associate Professor in Epigenetics and Bioinformatics at the University of Jordan. She received the B.Sc. and the M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Jordan and the Ph.D. degree in Bioinformatics from King's College London, UK. Then She worked as a postdoctoral research scientist at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, UK. Her research interests includes Bioinformatics / Epigenetics, Medical Image Processing, and Data Science specifically Machine and Deep Learning.

Dr Maha Saadeh holds a PhD in Computer and Networks Security and has both a BSc in Computer Science and a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Jordan. Her teaching and learning interests include Information and Network Security, Artificial intelligence, Robotics, Machine Learning, IoT, Computer Networks, Cloud and Fog Computing. Her work has been published in leading journals and conferences.

Look forward to seeing you at the seminar!