Epidemiology of Sleep Hygiene and Related Factors in Older Adults

Background: Sleep is one of the components of mental and physical health in old age and many factors can affect sleep hygiene in older adults. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology of sleep hygiene in older adults and its related factors. Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted in 2017 with 598 people aged 60 years and older living in Kermanshah, Iran, selected through random cluster sampling. Data collection tool was a questionnaire with two parts: demographic characteristics (personal and disease) and sleep hygiene index. SPSS software-16, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (nonparametric tests such as Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis) were used to analyze the data. The significance level in all of the tests was P < 0.05. Results: The findings showed that 64.5% of older adults had poor sleep hygiene. The mean score of sleep hygiene was 28.72 ± 6.99. Our findings showed that there was a significant relationship between sleep hygiene and pulmonary diseases (P < 0.001), diabetes (P < 0.002), sleep apnea (P < 0.001), snoring (P < 0.001), and fatigue and sleepiness during the day (P < 0.001). Conclusions: This study showed that more than half of the older adults had poor sleep hygiene. Therefore, older adults’ sleep hygiene can be improved through training.