Epidemiology of insomnia in korean adults: prevalence and associated factors.
OBJECTIVE
Insomnia is a common complaint in adults. However, large epidemiologic studies of insomnia involving Asian populations are rarely reported. We performed an epidemiologic study of insomnia in a large Korean adult population.


METHODS
A total of 5,000 subjects (2,470 men and 2,530 women) were interviewed by telephone. A representative sample of subjects aged 20 to 69 years was constituted according to a stratified, multistage random sampling method. Insomnia was defined as either any difficulty getting to sleep or getting back to sleep after waking in the night.


RESULTS
More than one fifth (n=1,141, 22.8%) of the 5,000 subjects complained of insomnia, with the prevalence being significantly higher in women (25.3%) than in men (20.2%, p<0.001). Logistic regression revealed that the prevalence of insomnia increased significantly with age (p<0.001), being higher in those aged 60-69 years than in those aged 20-29 years (OR=2.368, 95% CI=1.762-3.182, p<0.001), and was lower in those with a monthly income of >4.5 million Korean won than in those with an income of <1.5 million Korean won (OR=0.689, 95% CI=0.523-0.906, p<0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Insomnia is a common complaint in Korean adults, and its prevalence is similar to that in adults in Western countries.
Cho
Yong Won
YW
Department of Neurology, Dongsan Medical Center, Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea.
Shin
Won Chul
WC
Yun
Chang Ho
CH
Hong
Seung Bong
SB
Kim
Juhan
J
Earley
Christopher J
CJ