The need for 24/7 policing places high physical and psychological demands on police officers that contribute to a high level of fatigue. Frequent overnight shifts and long work weeks leads to acute and chronic partial sleep deprivation in addition to misalignment of circadian phase. As part of the CDC Health Protection Research Initiative: Evaluation of Workplace Health Promotion Research Projects, we have recently conducted a study entitled 'Sleep Disorders Management, Health and Safety in Police' that aimed to develop a novel sleep disorders detection and treatment program, 'Operation Healthy Sleep', on the health, safety, and productivity of police officers. The program included sleep health and hygiene education, caffeine-use education and a large- scale screening, diagnosis and treatment program for clinical sleep disorders. We have recently completed the program in two major police forces, the Massachusetts State Police and the Philadelphia Police Department, using a randomized clinical design to evaluate the overall impact of this health promotion program on officer health, workplace performance, and safety, as derived from police department databases. Approximately 2000 officers attended the educational component of the program. More than 1000 of these officers were also screened for sleep disorders and our results show that police officers have a particularly high prevalence of clinical sleep disorders, with obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia the most common conditions. In the current proposal, we will conduct a detailed evaluation of the Operation Healthy Sleep program and investigate the advantages and disadvantages of our approach though the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework to health behavior interventions. We will take advantage of the excellent relationships that we have developed with the police departments, unions and officers during the course of implementing Operation Healthy Sleep to conduct a series of focus group interviews with the stake-holders in the program, in addition to analysis of quantitative data on participation in the various stages of the program. We will also evaluate the cost, feasibility and sustainability of the Operation Health Sleep program through cost-benefit analysis, including quantitative analysis of objective health, safety and productivity outcomes. Finally, we will evaluate the external validity and potential for translation of the Operation Healthy Sleep program nationally by comparing health, safety and productivity outcomes obtained from the primary police samples with those obtained from a nationwide sample of more than 4000 police officers participating in our concurrent web-based survey sleep disorders, fatigue, health and safety. If viable, our ultimate aim is to disseminate this program to practitioners, policymakers and researchers nationwide to reduce fatigue and stress in law enforcement officers, improve their workplace performance, enhance officers' health and safety and, consequently, improve public safety. ? ? The need for 24/7 policing, with frequent overnight shifts and long work weeks, places high physical and psychological demands on police officers that contribute leads to acute and chronic partial sleep deprivation and high levels of fatigue. Furthermore, we have shown that police officers have a high prevalence of clinical sleep disorders, particularly obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia. We have recently implemented Operation Healthy Sleep in the Massachusetts State Police and Philadelphia Police Department which includes sleep health and hygiene education, caffeine-use education and a large-scale screening, diagnosis and treatment program for clinical sleep disorders. In the current proposal, we will conduct a detailed evaluation of the Operation Healthy Sleep program and investigate the advantages and disadvantages of our approach with the view to developing a nationwide program to enhance the sleep, alertness and performance of police officers and ultimately both their and the public's health and safety. ? ? ? ?
| Ogeil, Rowan P; Barger, Laura K; Lockley, Steven W et al. (2018) Cross-sectional analysis of sleep-promoting and wake-promoting drug use on health, fatigue-related error, and near-crashes in police officers. BMJ Open 8:e022041 |
| Rajaratnam, Shantha M W; Barger, Laura K; Lockley, Steven W et al. (2011) Sleep disorders, health, and safety in police officers. JAMA 306:2567-78 |
