Assessment of subjective sleep disturbance and related factors during female mid-life with the Jenkins Sleep Scale.

OBJECTIVE: To assess sleep disturbance and related factors among mid-aged women.

METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study in which 288 women (40-59 years) were requested to complete the Jenkins Sleep Scale (JSS), the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) and a general socio-demographic questionnaire containing female and partner data.

RESULTS: Median [interquartile range] age of the whole sample was 47 [8] years. A 62.2% of women were rural residents, 21.2% were postmenopausal, 20.1% were receiving psychotropic drugs, 64.2% had abdominal obesity (waist ≥ 88 cm), and 9.7% reported intimate violence. A 12.8% had an abnormal GHQ-12 score (total score ≥ 3) whereas 14.2% had severe menopause-related symptoms (total MRS score ≥ 17). The prevalence of disturbed sleep (JSS score ≥ 12) was 37.5%. JSS scores displayed significant differences in relation to menopausal status, presence of stress urinary incontinence, use of psychiatric treatment, intimate partner violence, self-perception of healthiness, and partner factors (perception of healthiness, educational level, and regular exercise). Higher JSS scores (disturbed sleep) positively correlated with GHQ-12 and MRS scores, number of co-morbid conditions, body mass index, and female and partner age. Multiple linear regression analysis found that JSS scores correlated positively with somatic MRS scores and with intimate violence, and inversely with partner educational level (r(2)=0.375, p<0.05).

CONCLUSION: In this mid-aged female sample, disturbed sleep was related to somatic menopause-related symptoms, intimate violence and partner educational level.