Background: The relationship between comorbidity, sleep complaints and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is not yet clearly confirmed. Few published studies exist investigating the relationship between sleep complaints, the degree of comorbidity and HRQoL among those 60 years and older. This study therefore aims to investigate the frequency of sleep complaints and to discuss their relationship with comorbidity as well as HRQoL in a population aged 60+.

Method: This study contained of 1128 people aged 60-96 who participated at baseline (2001) in one out of four centres of the Swedish longitudinal and multi-centre cohort study, The Swedish National study on Ageing and Care (SNAC).

Result: Our findings indicate that some of the investigated sleep complaints such as having difficulties sleeping because of pain or itch and being dependent on drugs to fall asleep are related to comorbidity whilst others such as waking up early in the morning, feeling tired daytime and waking up during the night might rather be related to conditions associated with the aging process. The women in this study showed to have a higher risk of suffering from sleep complaints and from comorbidity than the men. Their mental and physical HRQoL scores were additionally lower than the men’s and they were also more frequent users of sleeping drugs in comparison with the men. The findings also showed that the higher degree of comorbidity the more sleep complaints were also reported.

Discussion: Consequently, older women with a high degree of comorbidity appear to be a vulnerable group and worth paying attention to. They may not only have several diseases at the same time they may also have several sleep complaints which are linked to conditions related to the actual diseases. Circumstances, which all, mean an increased risk of developing a low HRQoL.