Preferences of Persons with Chronic Insomnia for Behavioural Treatments

Ibrahim, Sarah

Tuesday, 23 July 2013: 3:30 PM

Sarah Ibrahim, RN, MN
School of Nursing, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada
Souraya Sidani, PhD
Faculty of Nursing, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to understand the role of examining treatment preference of persons living with insomnia.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be exposed to a valid and reliable measure of treatment preferences.

Purpose: The prevalence of insomnia increases with age. Assisting adults to manage insomnia is essential to promote sleep and reduce depression. Two behavioural treatments, including Stimulus Control Instructions (SCI) and Sleep Restriction Therapy (SRT) are established treatments for insomnia. Providing persons their preferred treatment affects treatment uptake, adherence to and outcome of treatment. The overall purpose of this study is to examine the preferences for SCI and SRT expressed by persons with insomnia.

Methods: A descriptive design was used. Persons with insomnia completed the treatment acceptability and preference questionnaire, which described the SCI and the SRT in terms of the goal, treatment activities, mode of delivery, and dose and requested participants to rate the acceptability of each treatment option before choosing one for the management of insomnia.

Results: Participants (n=150) completed the study. The majority of participants (87.2%) expressed a clear preference. About (70.6%) of participants preferred the SRT over the SCI (29.4%). Reasons for the preferences as shared by participants were that they tried the SCI treatment before and wanted to learn a new way to approach sleep that was more structured and individualized.

Conclusion: Findings demonstrate that persons have a preference for treatments. Nurses and healthcare professionals are encouraged to identify and explore the preferences of patients in order to provide patient-centered-care.

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