Objective To investigate sleep quality and its impact factors among community elderly engaged in grandparenting.

Methods Using multistage random cluster sampling in Shandong province, we enrolled 696 urban and rural residents aged≥60 years and taking care of at least one grandchild under 6 years old and conducted a questionnaire survey among them between January and February 2018. Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and a self-designed questionnaire on relevant information were used in the survey.

Results For all the participants, the mean total PSQI score was 5.94 ± 3.63 and 33.9% (236) reported poor sleep quality (total PSQI score≥8). Correlation analysis demonstrated significant positive associations of total score and all dimension scores (except for sleep efficiency) of PSQI with total GDS score (r = 0.126 – 0.326, all P < 0.01). Multivariate stepwise regression analysis revealed that significant influencing factors of sleep quality included depression (95% confidence interval CI of β: 0.118 – 0.196, P < 0.001), self-reported health status (95% CI of β: 1.594 – 0.751, P < 0.001), with the parents being alive (95% CI of β: 0.479 – 1.520, P < 0.001), strength of grandparenting-related housework (95% CI of β: 0.304 – 1.499, P < 0.01), and recognition on concept of grandparenting (95% CI of β: 0.864 – 0.099, P < 0.05).

Conclusion Depression, health status of the elderly, whether with parents being alive, strength of grandparenting-related housework , and recognition on concept of grandparenting are main influencing factors for sleep quality among community elderly engaged in grandparenting.