Sleep Disturbances in Nursing Home Residents: Links to Quality of Life and Daily Functioning

Abstract

[Abstract] The current study sought to determine the association of sleep with HRQOL and physical function among older nursing home residents. Participants were 37 older adults attending or residing in a semi-urban nursing-home facility in Galicia, Spain (70.3% cognitively normal, 29.7% cognitively impaired, aged 84.1±8.0, 81.1% women) who completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the 5-level EuroQol-5D, a measure of HRQOL, and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Sets for Sleep, a measure of physical functional. After adjustment for age, poor (PSQI score ≤ 14) and/or worse sleep quality (continuous PSQI score) was associated with several indices of lower HRQOL, including greater immobility (b = 0.19, p = 0.012) difficulty completing self-care (b = 0.23, p < 0.001) and daily activities (b = 0.18, p = 0.004), more severe anxiety/depression (b = 0.10, p = 0.042), and a lower overall health index (b = 0.06, p = 0.001). Further, poor/worse sleep quality was associated with several indices of functional impairment, including greater difficulty maintaining body position (b = 0.32, p = 0.004), walking (b = 0.17, p = 0.001), and moving around (b = 0.45, p = 0.009).