Insomniac complaints interfere with quality of life but not with absenteeism: Respective role of depressive and organic comorbidity

Background and purposeInsomnia is common and associated with poor health status and quality of life. We designed a study to evaluate the impact of insomniac complaints with and without comorbidity on health status and absenteeism.Patients and methodsThis is a cross-sectional study performed within a 1-year follow up study on a prospective cohort of French employees. Insomniac subjects (n=986) were compared to control subjects (n=584). Insomniacs suffering from self-reported depressive feelings and behavioral and organic sleep complaints were excluded.ResultsSubjects with insomniac complaints (whether with mood or behavioral and organic sleep complaints or not) reported poorer quality of life and had a higher absenteeism rate than controls (9.6±31 versus 5.8±19 days, P<0.01). A logistic regression model adjusting for depressive and behavioral and organic sleep complaints showed that insomniac complaints were no longer predictive of absenteeism.ConclusionsInsomniac complaints are strongly associated with deterioration in quality of life but not necessarily with higher absenteeism.