Gender and Regional Differences in Sleep Quality and Insomnia: A General Population-based Study in Hunan Province of China

Abstract

Insomnia and the inability to sleep affect people’s health and well-being. However, its systematic estimates of prevalence and distribution in the general population in China are still lacking. A population-based cluster sampling survey was conducted in the rural and urban areas of Hunan, China. Subjects (n = 26,851) were sampled from the general population, with a follow-up using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for interview to assess quality of sleep and Insomnia (PSQI score >5). While the overall prevalence of insomnia was 26.6%, and little difference was found between males (26.3%) and females (27.0%); the mean PSQI score was 4.26 (±2.67), and significant higher in females (4.32 ± 2.70) than males (4.21 ± 2.64, p = 0.003). Individuals in the rural areas tended to report a higher PSQI score (4.45 ± 2.81) than urban residents did (4.18 ± 2.60) (p < 0.001) and the estimates of prevalence of insomnia was 29.4% in the rural areas, significant higher than 25.5% in the urban areas (p < 0.001). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that female gender, older age, higher level of education, being unmarried, living in the rural area, cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking were associated with insomnia. Our study may provide important information for general and mental health research.

Regional contextual influences on short sleep duration: a 50 universities population-based multilevel study in China

“…However, Tang et al found that in Hunan province individuals in rural areas tended to report poorer sleep quality than urban residents [19]. The authors attributed this to the higher physical demands of rural work, the presence of older age groups and problems of access to health services.…”

“…The above data were obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics [22]. Both area affluence and unemployment have been shown to be associated with SSD but the effect of city size is less conclusive, with some studies suggesting greater sleep deprivation in larger cities [23] while others have suggested that poor sleep quality may be more characteristic of rural areas [19]. …”

“…To the best of our knowledge no studies have done this. Third, most of the contextual research to date has focused on the USA and ignored other non-Western contexts where urban-rural and cultural differences in SSD may be more important [19]. Fourth, there have also been few multilevel studies which have attempted to highlight the importance of urban or regional contextual factors, and highlight the key pathways by which these may influence sleep deprivation.…”

Sleep quality and OPRM1 polymorphisms: a cross-sectional study among opioid-naive individuals

“…In German, 36% of the general population slept badly (Hinz et al, 2017). A survey conducted in China reported that the overall prevalence of insomnia was 26.6% among 26,851 subjects from the general population (Tang et al, 2017). A study among 794 medical students in Malaysia found that 16.1% reported bad sleep quality (Zailinawati et al, 2009).…”

“…In another study, a higher prevalence of poor sleep quality (32.9%) was reported among 1,118 Malaysian tertiary students (Lai, Say, 2013). Shift work, sleep disorders, socioeconomic status, aging, anxiety and the number of chronic disease, amongst others, were found to be significantly associated with poor sleep quality Patel et al, 2010;Luo et al, 2013;Hinz et al, 2017;Tang et al, 2017). Poor sleep quality is often associated with accidents (Garbarino et al, 2001;Powell et al, 2007), and an increased in total healthcare and lost productivity costs (Sarsour et al, 2011).…”