Measuring the prevalence of difficulty initiating sleep and difficulty maintaining sleep in the summertime using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and their association with air conditioner installation
Wednesday, 20 August 2014: 5:00 PM
Ballroom C (Dena'ina Center)
Momoko Kayaba, MS
,
University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
Tomohiko Ihara, PhD
,
The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan
Hiroyuki Kusaka, PhD
,
University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
Satoru Iizuka, PhD
,
Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
Kenji Miyamoto
,
Tajimi city, Tajimi, Japan
Yasushi Honda
,
University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
INTRODUCTION: The maximum temperature and the average temperature have been rising worldwide with the progress of global warming. The number of sultry nights has been increasing year by year in Japan, and it may cause heat-related sleep disorders. We aimed to identify the prevalence of sleep disturbance and effect of residential environment on sleep in the summertime.
METHODS: We conducted the survey in Tajimi City, Gifu prefecture, Japan. The target area recorded 40.9℃ in 2007, making it one of the hottest places in Japan. One thousand individuals aged 20 years or older were selected by random sampling from the basic resident register, and self-administered questionnaires were distributed to the individuals by mail, asking them to reply by August 2012. The prevalence of difficulty initiating sleep (DIS) (Question 5a: “Do you have difficulty falling asleep within 30 minutes?”) and difficulty maintaining sleep (DMS) (Question 5b: “Do you wake up in the middle of the night or early morning?” 1=not during the past month; 2=less than once a week; 3=once or twice a week; 4=three or more times a week) were defined as “4=three or more times a week” in a previous sleep epidemiological study in Japan (Doi, 1999).
RESULTS: Available responses were 351. Prevalence of DIS and DMS were 9.7% and 18.8%, respectively. DIS was associated with installation of an air conditioner (adjusted odds ratio, 3.4 [95% CI, 1.3–8.9] after controlling for several confounding variables.
CONCLUSIONS: Our finding determined that the installation of an air conditioner might affect sleep, and may be useful in discussing sleep environments and improving sleep quality.
Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund S-8 from Ministry of the Environment and the Research Program on Climate Change Adaptation of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
