Who Reports Insomnia? Relationships with Age, Sex, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Deprivation

Abstract

Socioeconomic factors and ethnicity are significant independent predictors of reported insomnia symptoms. This finding has important implications for the provision of treatment services to those most in need.

Gender and socio-economic patterning of self-reported sleep problems in Britain

“…Our research supports other studies that have found poorer sleep quality among those with low educational qualifications (Kietjna et al, 2003;Moore et al, 2002;Rocha et al, 2002;Stewart et al, 2006), who are not working (Paine et al, 2004;Rocha et al, 2002), and with low income (Lauderdale et al, 2006;Friedman, Love, Rosenkranz, Urry, Davidson, Singer et al, 2007). However, our study goes beyond existing research in two ways.…”

“…in flats with insubstantial walls may result in night-time disturbance through noise from neighbours, which is unlikely in more salubrious areas of detached housing. Low SES is also associated with living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods (Paine et al, 2004) and areas with greater problems of noise, crime, anti-social behaviour, safety and security, which may directly compromise sleep quality. …”

“…Although, sleep researchers have begun to analyse whether socio-economic circumstances are linked to sleep quality, they rarely examine multiple socio-economic variables. Research has found poor sleep quality associated with lower educational qualifications (Gilles, Lichstein, Scarinci, Heith Durrence, Taylor, Bush et al, 2005;Kietjna, Wojtyniak, Rymaszewska & Stokwiszewski, 2003;Hartz et al;Moore et al, 2002;Stewart, Besset, Bebbington, Brugha, Lindesay, Jenkins et al, 2006), unemployment (Hartz et al, 2007;Paine, Gander, Harris, & Reid, 2004;Rocha, Guerra, Fernanda & LimaCosta, 2002), and low income (Hartz et al, 2007;Lauderdale et al, 2007;Hall, Bromberger & Matthews, 1999). These studies have not systematically examined the independent effects of a range of socio-economic variables, nor whether the patterning of SES with sleep quality is mediated by other variables.…”

Duração do sono em adolescentes de diferentes níveis socioeconômicos

“…Os principais estudos, neste contexto, foram realizados com crianças e adolescentes norte-americanos com diferentes origens étnicas, normalmente, comparando origens africanas e europeias e têm verificado uma tendência de jovens com menor nível socioeconômico apresentarem pior qualidade de sono, maiores prevalências de insônia, menor duração do sono, maior frequência de despertares noturnos e apneia [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] .…”

The relative importance of specific risk factors for insomnia in women treated for early‐stage breast cancer

“…These include demographic and personal characteristics (e.g. being female [12], older age [13][14][15][16], lower education/socioeconomic status [17][18][19], being divorced/single [20], obesity [21,22]), unhealthy behaviors (e.g. low physical activity [15,23,24], alcohol intake [25,26], smoking [27][28][29][30][31]), poor physical health [32,33] and physical symptoms (e.g.…”