Insomnia in the elderly—A hospital-based study from North India

Background/Purpose: Insomnia affects the elderly population significantly. The Indian elderly population is growing rapidly and the epidemiology of insomnia needs to be studied in detail in this group. Methods: An observational study was carried out using a standard questionnaire on 304 male and 200 female Indian elderly patients presenting to the geriatric clinic of the Sir Sunderlal Hospital of the Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, to study the prevalence and nature of insomnia in this population. The mean age of the study group was 66.47 (±6.855) years. The distribution of insomnia in the various groups (based on sex, occupation, residence, habit-forming substance use, depression) was compared using the Chi-square test with SPSS version 16.0. Results: Insomnia was present in 32% of the study population. A statistically significant association was found between increasing age and insomnia (p = 0.035) but no significant sex differences were appreciable (p = 0.173). Early insomnia was found to be the most common pattern of insomnia identified (39% of total affected). Most of the cases were of chronic insomnia (89.45%) and associated with some comorbidity (100%). Cardiovascular diseases were the most common comorbidity (27.3% of patients with insomnia). Further, positive and statistically significant correlation was found between insomnia and the place of living (p = 0.034), habit-forming substance use (p = 0.045) and depression (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The nature and attributes of insomnia in the Indian elderly are identified by this study. The scope for cause-finding studies is highlighted and points regarding adequate intervention are suggested