Abstract

Introduction: Insomnia is among the most pervasive and poorly-addressed problem of aging. The purpose of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of insomnia among older patients who visit Health Center of Distomo, Greece and to associate with several risk factors.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 elderly, aged > 65 years. An anonymous questionnaire was designed to collect the basic demographic data of the study population. The Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) was used to quantify sleep disturbances. Statistics was processed with SPSS 22.

Results: According to AIS, 39.3% of the older people screened positive for insomnia. Sleep problems were more frequently in women (p = 0.002), in older age (p < 0.001), in elderly suffering from medical conditions (p < 0.05), in participants with poor social life (p = 0.011), with absence of daily physical activity (p < 0.001) and in those with daily coffee and alcohol consumption (p = 0.016 and p = 0.041 respectively). The polypharmacy (p < 0.001) and especially the consumption of diuretics (p = 0.007) and more than two antidepressants (p < 0.001) was strongly associated with insomnia.

Conclusion: According to our results insomnia is often among the elderly and strongly associated with several risk factors such as polypharmacy and comorbidity. Various interventions in Primary Health Care are necessary in order to increase detection rates of sleep disorders in older people.

Keywords: Sleep; Aging; Insomnia; Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS); Polypharmacy

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