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Title: Less Sleep Associated With a Higher Risk of Falling in Older Women
URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/22B916.htm
Doctor's Guide
September 9, 2008

CHICAGO -- September 09, 2008 -- Women aged 70 years and older who sleep 5 hours or less per night may be more likely to experience falls compared with those who sleep more than 7 to 8 hours per night, according to study in the September 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Falls pose a major health risk among older adults and are a leading cause of mortality, morbidity, and premature nursing home placement," write the authors.

"It is not established whether it is poor sleep or medications used to treat sleep disturbances that explain the increased risk of falls in those who are prescribed such medications."

Katie L. Stone, PhD, California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, San Francisco, California, and colleagues used wrist actigraphies and sleep diaries to measure sleep, sleep efficiency, and frequency of falls in 2,978 women aged 70 years or older. Questionnaires were used to determine demographic information and use of benzodiazepines.

Participants averaged 6.8 hours of sleep per night and spent an average of 77.2 minutes awake after initial sleep onset. The average number of falls 1 year after the collection of sleep data was 0.84. Of the women, 549 (18.4%) had 2 or more falls during the year after the sleep assessments.

The risk of having 2 or more falls during the following year was higher for women who slept 5 hours or less per night compared with women who slept more than 7 to 8 hours per night.

Compared with those with a sleep efficiency of 70% or higher, those with a sleep efficiency of less than 70% were 1.36 times more likely to experience a fall. Similarly, women with greater wake time after sleep onset (>=120 minutes) were 1.33 times more likely to fall than those who spent <120 minutes awake after sleep onset.

"In all, 214 subjects reported current use of benzodiazepines," the authors write. "Use of any benzodiazepine was associated with a 1.34-fold increase in risk of falls, whereas short- and long-acting benzodiazepine use was associated with an increased odds of 1.43 and 1.18, respectively."

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine

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