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Title: Counting The Healthcare Costs of Chronic Sleep Deprivation

URL: http://www.journalsleep.org/citation/sleepdata.asp?citationid=2094

Sleep, 2002, 25, 03; 289-296. "The Relationship Between Chronically Disrupted Sleep and Healthcare Use"
05/15/2002 02:57:04 PM
By David Ball

Chronic sleep deprivation may be linked to increased healthcare utilization and costs, say researchers in the United States. Their cross-sectional study of 6,440 subjects recruited from ongoing cohort studies to the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) found a link between an indirect measure of healthcare use and chronic sleep deprivation, sleep disruption, sleepiness, insomnia, and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). While percentage increases in healthcare demand in the community-based sample were modest, the general prevalence of these factors could be a substantial cost burden to the healthcare system, suggest physicians at medical institutions in Seattle, Cleveland, Baltimore, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh and Rapid City, South Dakota. Measurements were based on polysomnography results which included the Apnoea Hypopnea Index (AHI), percentage of sleep time with oxyhemoglobin saturation below 90 percent (CT90), and arousal index. Data on sleep related symptoms, use of medicines and chronic illness were also taken into account. The modified Chronic Disease Score (CDS) calculated from medication data was used as the indirect measure of predicted healthcare utilization. Adjusting for study site, age, gender and BMI, participants in the highest quartiles of AHI, CT90 and Epworth score were found to have 6-9 percent higher CDS than those in the lowest quartiles. Although the adjusted mean CDS for subjects with sleep apnoea was 18 percent greater than that for those without sleep apnoea, it was similar to the mean CDS for subjects with hypertension, chronic bronchitis or asthma. Complaints of not getting enough sleep, insomnia, sleepiness and fatigue were also associated with increased CDS in participants who did not have significant sleep-disordered breathing.

http://www.journalsleep.org/citation/sleepdata.asp?citationid=2094

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