Evaluation of sleep quality among elderly people: A Population Based Survey in Shiraz, Iran

Background and Aim: Older age population shows an increasing trend in Iran. According to the last national census of Iran in 2016, elderly adults constitutes 9.2% of total population; including 49% males and 51% females. Changes in sleep patterns can influence the quality of life of many older adults. This study was aimed to evaluate the sleep quality among shiraz elderly people. Materials and Methods: This 1.5 years population based survey was conducted in 2016-2017 and 412 elderly adults were selected through a multistage cluster sampling method. Their sleep quality was evaluated by standard Pittsburgh questionnaire .Data was analyzed in SPSS. Results: Mean age of participants was 68.1±6.2 years. Interviewees consisted of 216(52.4%) females and 196(47.6%) males. 55.2% of participants had sleep problems including 46.6% with moderate to 8.3% with serious and 0.3 % with very serious sleep problems. Various factors influenced the participants sleep quality such as quality of Life, marital status, having chronic illnesses like heart disease and chronic pain. Conclusion: This study showed that more than half of elderlies in our region suffer from sleep problems which can affect all aspects of the their life. Therefore, prevention and/ or care about sleep problems should be integrated in primary health care system for this population.

Keywords:

Sleep problem , Elderly , Quality of Life , Shiraz