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Prevalence of Insomnia Complaints and its Consequences in Kuwaiti College Students
Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek, Ph.D.
Objective: To estimate the prevalence rates of, and gender differences in insomnia
complaints and its consequences, as well as to assess the reliability and validity of the
Insomnia Scale.
Method: 2,210 male and female non-clinical Kuwaiti college students participated.
Their ages ranged from 16 to 37. Insomnia scale (IS) comprising 12 items was
administered in group sessions. Point prevalence rate was computed as the
summation of the percentages of responses in the two options “Much” and “Very
much” on each item during the most recent month.
Results: The IS has acceptable test-retest and alpha reliabilities, and good convergent
validity. The prevalence of the 12 IS items ranged from 4.1% to 29% in males, and
between 4.8 and 32.2% among females. The highest reported insomnia complaint
was early morning awakening in both sexes. It was found that 19.4% of males and
18.1% of females reported difficulty initiating sleep, while 8.6% of males and 15.7%
of females reported difficulty maintaining sleep. Females have higher mean scores in
3 items: interrupted sleep, awakening up many times during sleep, and annoyance
from interrupted sleep.
Conclusion: Point prevalence of insomnia and its consequences among the present
sample of Kuwaiti undergraduates lies approximately in the range of previous
epidemiological studies. However, the present range is somewhat lower than that of
Kuwaiti adolescents. It is useful to administer the same assessment tool in the
epidemiology of sleep disorders research.
| Keywords: Insomnia complaints, epidemiology, prevalence, college students, Kuwait |
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