The assessment of association between insomnia and risk factors in the province of Nova Scotia.

Scientific research on sleep problems reveals that insomnia has considerable impact on the daily functioning of the affected individual. This thesis investigates risk factors associated with insomnia in a random sample of individuals aged 12 years and older (n = 5,018) living in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. A binomial logistic regression was used to assess the association between insomnia and health factors, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and lifestyle variables. Moreover, the bootstrap method was used to obtain estimates of the odds ratios, parameter estimates, and their standard errors in addition to the logistic regression. The following findings are reported. Age less than 65 years, female gender, current level of smoking, arthritis, asthma, back problems, high blood pressure, bowel syndrome, diabetes, heart disease and migraine were associated with an increased risk of insomnia in the population of Nova Scotia. The bootstrap estimates for odds ratios were slightly higher than those obtained by the classical logistic regression model. This is the first study conducted for insomnia in Nova Scotia for the years 2000-2010. --P. i.