Sleep medication use in Canadian seniors.
ABSTRACT Difficulty sleeping is a common complaint by older people which leads to medication use to help attain sleep.
This study provides a population-based description of medication, specifically taken to help with sleep, by Canadians over the age of 60. The proportion of this sleep medication that is prescribed, and the determinants of prescribed versus over the-counter (OTC) sleep medication use will also be presented.
The Canadian Community Health Survey, 2002, provided the study population of 9,393 respondents over the age of 60.
Almost 16% of Canadians over 60 reported taking sleep medication over the past year, of which 85% was prescribed by physicians. Sleep medication is higher for women, increases with age, poor health, chronic illness and poor quality sleep,and was especially high for people with a recent major depressive episode. Prescribed sleep medication increased with age, low income, low education, poor health, chronic illness and residence in the province of Quebec. Adjusting for health status or insurance covering medication costs made little difference.
This study provides important new information on the use of sleep medication by older Canadians. Overall sleep medication use and proportion of sleep medication prescribed are separate parameters with potentially different distributions, e.g., Quebec showed the same amount of sleep medication use as elsewhere, but a much higher proportion of it was prescribed.
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ABSTRACT: It has been suggested that physical or social activity is associated with fewer sleep disturbances among elderly people. Women report more sleep disturbances than men, which could indicate a variation in activity patterns between the genders. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between sleep disturbances and leisure activities in men and women (n = 945) aged ≥60 years in a Swedish population. Sleep disturbances were measured using eight dichotomous questions and seventeen variables, covering a wide range of leisure activities. Few leisure activities were found to be associated with sleep disturbances and their importance decreased when the models were adjusted for confounders and gender interactions. After clustering the leisure activities and investigating individual activities, sociointellectual activities were shown to be significant for sleep. However, following adjustment for confounders and gender interactions, home maintenance was the only activity significant for sleep. Being a female increased the effect of home maintenance. Besides those leisure activities, poor/fair self-rated health (OR 7.50, CI: 4.27-11.81) and being female (OR 4.86, CI: 2.75-8.61) were found to have the highest association with poor sleep. Leisure activities pursued by elderly people should focus on activities of a sociointellectual nature, especially among women, to promote sleep.Sleep disorders. 01/2014; 2014:595208.
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ABSTRACT: Abstract Sleep deprivation and disturbances can result in lowered productivity and increased errors/accidents. Little is known about population characteristics associated with the use of sleep medications. The objective of this study was to investigate the association of sociodemographic factors with the use of sleep medications in the US population. This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study using data from the 2010 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, which contains nationally representative data from the US population. The study population included all respondents older than 18 years of age. A multiple logistic regression model was built to analyze the odds of reporting use of prescription or nonprescription sleep medication. In 2010, an estimated 19 million survey respondents (10%) used some type of medication to fall asleep. The odds of reporting use of sleep medication were significantly lower among males (odds ratio [OR]=0.695, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.599-0.808), and the uninsured (OR=0.613, 95% CI=0.439-0.855). The odds of sleep medication use were significantly higher among age groups 24-44 years and 44-64 years as compared with 18-24 years (OR=1.868, 95% CI=1.254-2.781 and OR=1.936, 95% CI=1.309-2.865, respectively), whites (OR=2.003, 95% CI=1.597-2.512) compared with African Americans, or non-Hispanics (OR=1.609, 95% CI=1.316-1.967), the unemployed (OR=1.773, 95% CI=1.496-2.101), and respondents with depression (OR=2.077, 95% CI=1.463-2.951) or anxiety (OR=6.855, 95% CI=4.998-9.403). Differences in sleep medication use were seen among specific subpopulations. Further research into why such differences exist is necessary. The factors identified in this study should be investigated further to identify vulnerable populations to determine the underlying causes of sleep disorders. (Population Health Management 2014;17:xxx-xxx).Population Health Management 07/2014; · 1.18 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Older adults frequently report disruptions in their ability to initiate and maintain sleep. It remains unclear whether these sleep problems are consequent to associated medical comorbidities or if they represent primary sleep disturbances that exist independent of other disorders of senescence. Herein we describe sleep characteristics and associated medical and psychiatric comorbidities among ethnically diverse nondemented older adults. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 702 participants drawn from the Einstein Aging Study (EAS), a community-based study of aging. Sleep onset/maintenance difficulties (SO/MD) were ascertained using responses from the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (MOS-SS). Participants also completed assessments of medical history, psychological symptoms, and medication use. Participants were an average of 80 ± 5.5 years of age and had 14 ± 3.4 years of education. Older adults reported sleeping an average of 6.5 ± 1.2 h/night. Mild SO/MD was reported in 43% of participants, while moderate/severe SO/MD was reported in 12% of participants. Sleep problems were associated with measures of obesity and symptoms of depression and anxiety. SO/MD was not associated with history of common medical conditions. Use rates of insomnia medication were low (0% to 3%). The prevalence of SO/MD is high in the elderly community-dwelling population and is associated with common psychiatric disorders. With the exception of obesity, SO/MD is not associated with common medical disorders. Further study is necessary to disentangle the nature of the relationship between sleep disturbance and psychiatric comorbidity among older adults. CITATION: Zimmerman ME; Bigal ME; Katz MJ; Derby CA; Lipton RB. Are sleep onset/maintenance difficulties associated with medical or psychiatric comorbidities in nondemented community-dwelling older adults? J Clin Sleep Med 2013;9(4):363-369.Journal of clinical sleep medicine: JCSM: official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine 01/2013; 9(4):363-9. · 2.93 Impact Factor