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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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The problems of sleep for older women
— changes in health outcomes | | Author(s) | Julie E Byles, Gita D Mishra, Margaret A Harris |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 32, no 2, March 2003 |
| Pages | pp 154-163 |
| Keywords | Older women ; Over 70s ; Sleep disorders ; Health [elderly] ; Drugs ; Longitudinal surveys ; Australia. |
| Annotation | Sleeping difficulty is a common and persistent complaint among older women and is strongly associated with use of sleeping medications. Both behaviours are negatively associated with health status. Of the 10,430 participants aged 70-75 in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH), a majority of the women (64%) endorsed one or more items related to sleeping difficulty at 3-year follow-up. 4,195 (42.4%) reported "waking in the early hours"; 2,592 (26%) "taking a long time to get to sleep"; 2,078 (21%) "sleeping badly at night"; 1,072 "lying awake most of the night"; and 1,078 (11%) "worry keeping you awake". Total scores on the Nottingham Health Profile sleep subscale ranged from 0-100. There was a strong statistical association between reporting sleeping difficulty at baseline and at follow-up. 15% of women reported use of sleep medication at follow-up, and women were 6.5 times more likely to report use if they also reported any item of sleep difficulty. Use of sleep medication was negatively associated with physical functioning, bodily pain, vitality, and social functioning, as well as with falls, accidents and use of health care services. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-030425208 A |
| Classmark | BD: BBK: CTS: CC: LLD: 3J: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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