Introduction: Insomnia has been reported as a common health problem among the elderly.
Objectives: To assess the prevalence of insomnia among the elderly residents of a rural area and to identify associations between insomnia and selected baseline variables.
Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among permanent elderly residents of Mugalur village near Bangalore. An interview schedule based on a validated insomnia-screening questionnaire was developed for the purpose of this study and administered to the study population.
Results: Among the 92 elderly studied, insomnia was prevalent in 13.04%. Among those with insomnia, 50% had parasomnias, 33.3% had circadian rhythm disturbances, 16.7% had sleep apnoea requiring further evaluation and 8.3% had movement disorders. A higher proportion of those that were currently unemployed, widowed, dependants, hypertensives, and diabetics, had urinary disturbances or had joint pains were suffering from insomnia.
Conclusions: Prevalence of insomnia was 13.04%, with no significant associations.
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