The prevalence of poor sleep quality and associated risk factors among Chinese elderly adults in nursing homes: A cross-sectional study

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 15; no. 5; p. e0232834
• Main Authors: Zhu, Xidi, Hu, Zhao, Nie, Yu, Zhu, Tingting, Chiwanda Kaminga, Atipatsa, Yu, Yunhan, Xu, Huilan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 15-05-2020; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Adults; Age; Anxiety; Biology and Life Sciences; Cardiovascular disease; Chronic diseases; Chronic illnesses; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Cognitive ability; Confidence intervals; Cross-sectional studies; Depression (Mood disorder); Diseases; Elderly; Elderly patients; Epidemiology; Exercise; Geriatrics; Health aspects; Health risks; Hearing loss; Hypertension; Institutionalization; Medical care quality; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Nursing home patients; Nursing homes; Older people; People and Places; Physical fitness; Population; Public health; Quality; Quality assessment; Risk analysis; Risk factors; Signs and symptoms; Sleep; Sleep disorders; Social interactions; Social support; Statistical analysis; Statistics; Studies; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232834

Sleep problems have become the most common complaints among the elderly. There are a few studies that explored the prevalence of poor sleep quality and its associated factors among the elderly in nursing homes. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the prevalence of poor sleep quality and its associated factors among the Chinese elderly in nursing homes.
A total of 817 elderly residents, from 24 nursing homes, were included in this cross-sectional study. Sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and poor sleep quality was defined as PSQI >5. Multiple binary logistic regression was used to estimate the strength of the association between risk factors and poor sleep quality in terms of adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and interactions of risk factors for poor sleep quality were also examined.
The prevalence of poor sleep quality was 67.3% (95% CI: 64.0, 70.5%) among the Chinese elderly in nursing homes. Multiple binary logistic regression results showed that participants with the following characteristics had an increased risk of poor sleep quality after adjustments for other confounders: being 70-79 years old (AOR: 1.78, 95% CI: 1.08, 2.92) or 80 years old and above (AOR: 2.67, 95% CI: 1.68, 4.24); having one to two kinds of chronic diseases (AOR: 2.05, 95% CI: 1.39, 3.01) or three or more kinds of chronic diseases (AOR: 2.35, 95% CI: 1.39, 4.00); depression symptoms (AOR: 1.08, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.11), anxiety symptoms (AOR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.18), and social support(AOR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.95, 0.99). Additive interactions were detected between age and anxiety symptoms (AOR: 8.34, 95% CI: 4.43, 15.69); between chronic disease and anxiety symptoms (AOR: 8.61, 95% CI; 4.28, 17.31); and between social support and anxiety symptoms (AOR: 6.43, 95% CI: 3.22, 12.86).
The prevalence of poor sleep quality among the elderly in nursing homes is relatively high. Besides, anxiety symptoms has additive interactions with age, chronic disease and social support for poor sleep quality. These findings have significant implications for interventions that aim to improve sleep quality among elderly residents in nursing homes.