Association of Emotional Mental Status With Sleep Quality in Adolescents With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Background Childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE) is a chronic autoimmune illness. The nature of cSLE and long-term usage of corticosteroids put adolescents at risk of emotional and mental issues, as well as poor sleep quality. This study assessed the correlation between this population's emotional and mental health and the quality of their sleep. Methods Sixty inpatient and outpatient teenagers (10–18 years old) with cSLE participated in this cross-sectional observational study. The Indonesian version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to evaluate sleep quality, while the Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17 (PSC-17) was used to measure emotional mental health. The data were analyzed using Chi-squared or Fisher's exact tests as appropriate and Spearman correlations. A p-value less than or equal to 0.05 was deemed significant. Results Emotional mental problems were found in 18.3% of participants, predominantly within the internalizing domain (16.7%). Nearly half of the teenagers (41.7%) reported having poor quality sleep. Having a bad night's sleep was significantly associated with having an emotional or mental health issue (p = 0.039; PR = 2.10, 95% CI: 1.24–3.55). There was a small but statistically significant positive relationship between emotional mental state scores and overall PSQI scores (r = 0.301, p = 0.019), especially for daytime dysfunction (r = 0.365, p = 0.004). Conclusion Adolescents with cSLE have a high prevalence of emotional and mental problems and poor sleep quality, with a significant but weak correlation between the two. Routine mental health and sleep quality screening using simple tools such as PSC-17 and PSQI, along with psychosocial support and sleep hygiene education, are recommended for the clinical management of cSLE.