CUHK 
P R E S S   R E L E A S E
Chinese Version 
 
 28 May 1999
 
 
“CCUHK's Study Shows Sleep Problems are Common in Hong Kong Elderly
 
The Department of Psychiatry of The Chinese University of Hong Kong recently conducted the territory's first ever study to examine the sleep habit and frequency of insomnia in the elderly population.  The study showed that insomnia is a common problem among elderly and is associated with poor mental and physical health.

Insomnia or inadequate or poor sleep is a distressing problem for many people, especially the elderly.   Problems with sleep increase with age.  In western countries, about 10 to 40% of elderly have sleep complaints.  However, little research has been done in Hong Kong to examine how common the problem is here.

The CUHK's study interviewed a community sample of 1,034 elderly aged 70 years or over.  The average sleep time was 6.4 hours.  In general, males slept longer than females.  38.2% of the subjects complained of insomnia.  Out of this 38.2%, 13.7% had frequent insomnia while 24.5% had occasional insomnia.  Females had a higher rate of insomnia, but the rate did not increase with age.  Factors associated with insomnia included poor perceived health, more chronic physical illness, depression and more life events.  Only 2.8% of the elderly sample had taken sleeping pills within a 1-year period.

"People usually think the elderly, as a matter of course, sleep less and insomnia is not a problem," concluded Professor Helen Chiu Fung-kum, Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, CUHK. "However, frequent insomnia is associated with impaired physical and mental health and could be an indicator of poorer quality of life of the elderly.  However, the problem of taking sleeping-pills is not as common as in many western countries."