Insomnia Disorder Among Coronavirus Disease Survivors: A South Korean Nationwide Cohort Study

We investigated the prevalence and associated factors of insomnia disorder among survivors of coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19).

This population-based cohort study used data from the National Health Insurance Service COVID-19 cohort database from January 1 to June 4, 2020. COVID-19 patients were defined as individuals whose test confirmed that they were infected, regardless of the severity, and survivors were defined as individuals who recovered from the infection.

A total of 299,968 individuals were included in the final analysis, and 6,934 were considered as COVID-19 survivors, while the control group comprised 292,764 individuals. In the multivariable model after covariate adjustment, COVID-19 survivors had a 3.33-fold higher prevalence of insomnia disorder than the control group (odds ratio [OR]: 3.33, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.98-3.73; p<0.001). In the sensitivity analysis, the COVID-19 survivors with no specific treatment and the survivors with specific treatment were associated with a 3.16-fold (OR: 3.16, 95% CI: 2.77-3.59; p<0.001) and 3.89-fold (OR: 3.89, 95% CI: 3.17-4.78; p<0.001) higher prevalence of insomnia disorder than the control group.

In South Korea, 5.4% of COVID-19 survivors were diagnosed with insomnia disorder at 6 months follow-up. Thus, insomnia disorder is a public health issue for COVID-19 survivors.