Abstract

RUEDA SANCHEZ, Mauricio; DIAZ MARTINEZ, Luis Alfonso  and  OSUNA SUAREZ, Edgar. Prevalence insomnia risk factors in the general population. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2008, vol.56, n.3, pp.222-234. ISSN 0120-0011.

Background. Several factors associated to insomnia has been reported, but few studies have evaluated them in a combined form, for what is not known their influence as a confusion factor. Objective. To evaluate insomnia definition and determine the prevalence in the general population and to establish the force of association of several known risk factors. Materials and methods. Cross-sectional study of 1.505 random selected adult households of Bucaramanga , Colombia . The survey included aspects about sleep perception and insomnia symptoms, socio-demographic factors, lifestyle and health condition. To adjust the potential confusion, models of polynomial logistic regression were generated. Results. 11.4 percent (IC95% 9.7-13.1) of adults report sleep problems; 63.6 percent (IC95% 61.0-66.3) report at least an insomnia symptom without consequences on the following day, and 26.2 percent (IC95% 23.7-28.7) reported to have at least an insomnia symptom with next day consequences. The risk factors associated to insomnia with daytime symptoms are age (OR 2.079), to suffer current physical abuse (OR 17.704) and to have difficulties in several aspects of life (labor, economic, couple, or family, among others; OR 4.437), while it is a protective factor to have secondary or university education (OR 0.649 and 0.511, respectively). Insomnia was not associated with history of serious illnesses, gender, socio-economic status or alcohol or coffee consumption. Conclusion. The best insomnia definition is the combination of insomnia symptoms and its consequences during the day. The insomnia prevalence is high, being associated with some factors previously described in the literature, but not with others, indicating the necessity that when carrying out studies all the potential variables of confusion should be included and advanced techniques of analysis used.

Keywords : sleep initiation and maintenance disorders; stress; con founding factors (epidemiology); cross-sectional studies.

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