Objective: To assess relations between self-reported arthritis-related disruptions in sleep, physical activity, and social functioning and use of medical care, complementary therapies, and self-care for arthritis in older adults.
Design: A survey of self-reported arthritis-related disruptions in sleep and daily life as risk factors for use of 15 medical, complementary, and self-care modalities for relief of arthritis symptoms.
Setting: General community from 38 urban and 12 rural areas in the contiguous United States.
Participants: Nine hundred thirty-seven older persons reporting arthritis; of the 1925 in the 1993 to 1994 follow-up of the National Survey of Self-care and Aging, a population-based, stratified, random sample of noninstitutionalized Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older.
Main outcome measures: Use of 15 medical, self-care, and complementary modalities for relief of arthritis symptoms.
Results: Most respondents reported use of at least 1 medical, complementary, or self-care strategy for arthritis. Arthritis was reported to disrupt sleep and leisure in 32.8% and 33.4% of respondents, respectively. Individuals with sleep disruption were more likely than those without sleep disturbance to use medical, complementary, and self-care strategies (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 2.31 [1.59-3.37] for seeing a physician; and 2.23 [1.60-3.10] for using physical modalities). Reported disruption in sleep from arthritis was associated with use of more medical, complementary, and self-care strategies than was any other disruption.
Conclusions: Self-reported arthritis-related disruption in sleep is associated with use of a wide range of medical, complementary, and self-care strategies. Physicians, other health care providers, and researchers should not overlook the importance of this common and often-neglected symptom.