Dados do Trabalho

Título

SELF-REPORTED SLEEP PROBLEMS AND ASSOCIATION WITH FALLS IN BRAZILIAN OLDER INDIVIDUALS: 2019 NATIONAL HEALTH SURVEY.

Introdução

The occurrence of falls among the elderly population is a public health challenge due to its frequency and potential to reduce quality of life, increase illness and risk of death. Poor quality sleep leads to daytime sleepiness, decreased alertness and difficulty concentrating, which can lead to slower reflexes and less attention to environmental risks, increasing the likelihood of falls.

Objetivo

To investigate the association between sleep problems and the occurrence of falls among Brazilian older people.

Métodos

Cross-sectional study with data from the Household-Based Population Survey, 2019 National Health Survey (NHS). The occurrence of falls was assessed by the question “In the last twelve months, have you had any falls?”, and self-reported sleep problems were investigated by the question “In the last two weeks, how often have you had sleep problems, such as difficulty falling asleep, waking up frequently during the night or sleeping more than usual?” To check the association between the outcome and exposure, crude and adjusted analyses were performed for sex, age, regular use of medication, diagnosis of hypertension, diabetes, cataracts, and history of stroke using Poisson regression with robust variance adjustment, with effect measures expressed as prevalence ratios and respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI), considering complex sampling effects using the Survey command.

Resultados

The prevalence of falls was 12.6% (95% CI 11.8; 13.4) among older individuals without sleep problems and 23.5% (95% CI 21.6; 25.6) among those with sleep problems. After adjustment, it was found that the prevalence of falls in the last year was 60% higher among older individuals with self-reported sleep problems (PR = 1.60; 95% CI 1.43; 1.78) when compared with older individuals without sleep problems.

Conclusões

The presence of sleep problems significantly impacted the occurrence of falls among Brazilian older people participating in the 2019 NHS.

Palavras -chave

Sleep problems, Falls, Older individuals