The Prevalence and Incidence of Insomnia in Korea during 2005 to 2013

Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to estimate the progress of insomnia prevalence and incidence over the past several years. Also, this study compared survival rates between individuals with and without insomnia.Methods The National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC) from 2002–2013 was used for this study. Prevalent cases of insomnia were defined using ICD-10 codes F51.0 or G47.0, or a prescription of sedatives. Cox’s proportional hazard analysis was conducted to compare survival rates between insomnia patients and people without insomnia.Results In 2013, there were 46,167 (5.78%) insomnia patients over 20 years old in this cohort. Insomnia was more common among women and the elderly. Annual incidence over the past several years remained steady but the prevalence increased. The survival of insomnia patients was lower than that of people without insomnia, and the hazard ratio for overall mortality was 1.702 (p<0.001).Conclusion This large-scale population-based cohort study provided current epidemiologic indicators of insomnia in the Korean general population.

Sleep in Older Adults and Its Possible Relations With COVID-19

“…The same study showed that the prevalence of insomnia symptoms is reasonably stable throughout the whole lifespan, ranging from 18.4 to 21.5% in the general population and reaching 19.6% above 60 years old (Castro et al, 2013). Another population-based study, representing the population of South Korea, found the prevalence of clinical insomnia (based on national records of hypnotic drugs prescription and use of ICD-10 codes compatible with insomnia) to be 10.3% in people over 60 years old and increasing to 18.2% in people over 80 years old (Chung et al, 2020). In Canada, a nationwide representative survey estimated the prevalence of self-reported insomnia symptoms among people over 65 years old to be 22.2% (Chaput et al, 2018).…”

Sleep Problems among Disaster Victims: A Long-Term Survey on the Life Changes of Disaster Victims in Korea

“…As there are differences in the characteristics of the participants and methods used for assessing sleep problems, direct comparison is difficult; however, the proportion of participants with poor sleep quality is higher than the 6.9% [ 22 ] and 15% [ 36 ] observed in studies that assessed the prevalence of sleep difficulties in survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake. In a recent study, considering that the prevalence of insomnia in Korean adults was 1.58% (20 s) to 10.28% (60 s) [ 37 ], this suggests that the participants in this study had many sleep problems.…”

“…An analysis of subjective sleep quality according to the characteristics of the participants showed that females over the age of 40 who were married, graduated from middle school or lower, had an average monthly income of less than KRW 3 million, were non-smokers, were victims of heavy rain or fire, and had experienced a disaster within the last 2 or 6–7 years had lower subjective sleep quality. In previous studies, the demographic characteristics shown to be related to duration of sleep difficulties were being female [ 21 , 37 ], older age [ 37 ], low income [ 21 , 38 , 39 , 40 ], less education [ 21 , 38 , 39 ], unemployment [ 38 , 41 ], and physical illness [ 21 ]. The findings in our study, therefore, corroborate the results of previous studies.…”

Sleep-Related Eating Disorder and Nocturnal Eating Syndrome

“…People usually maintain the longest fasting state from the time after eating dinner, conducting activities for several hours and sleeping, to the time they wake up (7 hours to 12 hours). Chronic sleep deprivation continues to be a serious problem and the number of people who eat late at night or eat excessive amounts of food at night has increased [1].…”