Study Of Coexistence of Stress and Insomnia in Geriatric Patients

Abstract

Insomnia is the most common sleep complaint reported by persons above 65 years. It is fined as the inability to initiate or maintain sleep, and the etiology can be multi-factorial. Insomnia in the geriatric patients may be due to- stress or a primary sleep disorder, such as obstructive sleep apnea, periodic limb movements in sleep, circadian rhythm disorders. On the other hand, stress is a new topic of conversation in relation to short-term insomnia and is considered a significant cause. This study was done to fmd out whether there is any significant relationship between stress and insomnia among geriatric patients of 8 selected hospitals. The data were collected from both outdoor & indoor patients. A total of 302 geriatric patients were interviewed according to the questionnaire designed for the study. The hospitals were selected systematically from an alphabetical list of all hospitals of Dhaka city. Among the geriatric patients, 75% were male and 25% were female. Age distribution of the patients ranged from 65 to 99 years (minimum age is 65 and the maximum age is 99). Average age of was 68. Among the patients, 60% were retired. Among the female patients, 24% were housewives but majorities (76%) were retired. Among the male patients, 1 2% were businessmen, 3% service holder and 1 % farmer. Most of the patients were uneducated (5 1 %). The educational levels of the rest (49%) varied induding graduate (4%), higher secondary ( 1 4%) and secondary ( 1 3%), below secondary ( 1 9%). About 57% of the patients suffered from insomnia, 39% of the patients had no insomnia whereas only 4% of the patients had insomnia occasionally. Among those patients having insomnia, 54% of those patients were male whereas 46% were female. It was found that about 62% of the geriatric patients suffered from stress but 38% of the patients had no stress in their daily life. It was also found that both the men and women have different level of getting stress in their life. Among the patients who have stress, 55% were men and 45% were women. Among the patients who had stress also suffered from insomnia. Among the patients, who had stress, also had insomnia. 72% of the patients had insomnia and stress. 1 6% of the patients had only stress and 1 2% of the patients had only insomnia. Among the patients, who had suffered from insomnia, 72% of the patients also suffered from stress an,d 28% of the patients had only insomnia. On the other veen hand 80% of the patients who had suffering from Insomnia also had stress. 20% of the /I patients had no stress who suffering from insomnia. So from the study we can say that stress and insomnia have correl,tion between them.