- Title
- Health-care utilisation amongst pregnant women who experience sleeping problems and/or tiredness or fatigue: secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey of 1835 pregnant women
- Creator
- Lauche, Romy; Hall, Helen; Adams, Jon; Steel, Amie; Broom, Alex; Sibbritt, David
- Relation
- ARC.DP1094765 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP1094765
- Relation
- Sleep and Breathing Vol. 20, Issue 1, p. 355-362
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11325-015-1250-7
- Publisher
- Springer
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2016
- Description
- Introduction: Sleeping problems and fatigue in pregnancy are often accepted as a normal part of pregnancy; however, these conditions can be linked to serious consequences for both the mother and child. Despite established links between sleeping disturbance and a wide range of pregnancy complications, little is known about the health-care utilisation of women experiencing sleeping problems and fatigue. This study addresses the existing gap in the literature by examining cross-sectional data to identify health service utilisation patterns of pregnant women experiencing sleeping problems and/or tiredness or fatigue. Methods: In 2010, a sub-study of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health was conducted as a cross-sectional survey of 2445 women who had recently given birth. Associations between reported symptoms of sleeplessness and/or tiredness or fatigue and health service utilisation were determined using logistic regression analysis. Results: During their pregnancy, 15.2% of women experienced sleeping problems while 35.4% experienced tiredness or fatigue. Women most commonly consulted with an obstetrician (n = 96) or a general practitioner (GP) (n = 74) for their tiredness or fatigue rather than a midwife (n = 56). A substantial number of women sought help from a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioner for sleeping problems (33%) or tiredness/fatigue (28%). Discussion: Sleeping problems and/or tiredness or fatigue is reported by a reasonable percentage of pregnant women, and women obtain assistance from conventional and CAM practitioners for their symptoms, but not all seek help. Given the serious implications of untreated sleep- and fatigue-related symptoms for mother and baby, this area of research deserves and requires more attention.
- Subject
- complementary therapies; sleep initiation and maintenance disorders; fatigue; pregnancy
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1343399
- Identifier
- uon:29156
- Identifier
- ISSN:1520-9512
- Language
- eng
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