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Insomnia: prevalence and its impact on excessive daytime sleepiness and psychological well-being in the adult Taiwanese population

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Abstract

Objectives

This study examined the national age- and sex-specific prevalence rates of insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), the associations of insomnia symptoms with daytime consequences, and the impact of insomnia on EDS and psychological well-being.

Methods

Data of 36,743 men and women aged 18 years and above from the 2005 Survey of Social Development Trends—Health Security in Taiwan were analyzed.

Results

Over 25% of the Taiwanese adults experienced insomnia. Difficulty initiating sleep (14.6%) was the most common type of insomnia, followed by early morning awakening (13.9%) and difficulty maintaining sleep (13.4%). The risk of EDS was three times as high for individuals with insomnia as for those without (95% confidence interval of odds ratio: 2.77–3.71). Insomnia status predicted poor psychological well-being even after controlling for sociodemographic factors and health status.

Conclusions

Taiwanese adults had a high prevalence of insomnia. Insomnia contributed at least partially to an individual’s psychological well-being.

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Abbreviations

EDS:

Excessive daytime sleepiness

EMA:

Early morning awakening

DIS:

Difficulty initiating sleep

DMS:

Difficulty maintaining sleep

NT:

Taiwanese dollar

OR:

Odds ratio

χ 2 :

Chi-square test

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Acknowledgments

This study was sponsored by the Taipei Medical University-Wan Fang Hospital (96TMU-WFH-14). Data analyzed in this paper were collected by the 2005 Survey of Social Development Trends—Health Security conducted by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, Taiwan. The Center for Survey Research of Academia Sinica is responsible for the data distribution. The authors appreciate the assistance in providing data by the institutes aforementioned. The views expressed herein are the authors' own.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, 250 Wu Hsing St, Taipei, 110, Taiwan

    Ching-Chiu Kao & Pei-Shan Tsai

  2. Department of Nursing Service, Taipei Medical University-Wan Fang Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ching-Chiu Kao

  3. Department of Anesthesiology, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chun-Jen Huang

  4. Cardinal Tien College of Healthcare & Management, Hsin-Den, Taipei County, Taiwan

    Mei-Yeh Wang

Authors
  1. Ching-Chiu Kao
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  2. Chun-Jen Huang
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  3. Mei-Yeh Wang
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  4. Pei-Shan Tsai
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Correspondence to Pei-Shan Tsai.

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Kao, CC., Huang, CJ., Wang, MY. et al. Insomnia: prevalence and its impact on excessive daytime sleepiness and psychological well-being in the adult Taiwanese population. Qual Life Res 17, 1073–1080 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-008-9383-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-008-9383-9

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