Crude and Adjusted Prevalence of Sleep Complaints in Mexico City

To estimate the crude prevalence rates of several sleep complaints and the prevalence for each one adjusted for the coexistence of symptoms in other sleep domains in a representative sample of adult individuals from Mexico City.

A probabilistic sample of 1933 adult individuals living in Mexico City was surveyed using fourteen questions of the Sleep Disorders Questionnaire to assess sleep-related symptoms and sleep complaints. Estimates of crude prevalence rates for each sleep disturbance and adjusted for a score ≥ the 80th. percentile in the questionnaire were calculated.

The following prevalence rates were found: insomnia 39.7%; excessive diurnal sleepiness (EDS) 20.9%; obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (EDS plus snoring) 7.7%; habitual snoring 9.9%; restless legs syndrome (RLS) 4.4%; narcolepsy 0.9%; sleep paralysis (SP) 13.2%; and hypnotic use 1.2%. When prevalence rates were calculated accounting for symptoms in other sleep domains, notable reductions were observed in complaints of insomnia (17.3%), EDS (10.3%), and SP (8.7%), while minor decreases were observed for complaints of snoring (7.4%), OSAS (5%), and RLS (3.8%); narcolepsy prevalence practically did not change (0.9%).

Sleep complaints are highly prevalent in Mexican adult population. More than a half of the individuals with a given sleep disturbance have a global sleep deterioration associated to psychosocial and health impairments.