Monitoring the sleep health of adults: a scoping review of routine national surveillance systems.

STUDY OBJECTIVES

The aims of this review were to identify existing national surveillance systems monitoring one or more domains of sleep health in adults, and to describe the specific sleep health indicators used.

METHODS

We systematically searched the gray and peer-reviewed literature for routinely conducted cross-sectional and longitudinal nationally representative health surveys that included the assessment of at least one domain of sleep health. The methodology involved: (1) targeted searches of the websites of national and international health agencies and statistics departments for 199 countries, (2) country-specific customized internet searches, and (3) country-specific electronic database searches of PubMed.

RESULTS

A total of 19 762 records were identified from both the gray and peer-reviewed literature. Sleep health surveillance at the national level was conducted by 51 countries (25.6%) across 69 national health surveys. Sleep quality (96.1% of countries that surveilled sleep) was the most frequently assessed followed by sleep duration (27.5%), sleep medication use (25.5%), sleep disorders (17.6%), daytime alertness (15.7%), sleep satisfaction (15.7%), and sleep timing (7.8%). Additionally, 34.8% of the surveys utilized multiple sleep health indicators.

CONCLUSIONS

This study identified three significant gaps in the coverage of sleep health within national surveillance systems. Limited population sleep data in low- and middle-income countries, inconsistent use of sleep-related items in surveys and questionnaires, and substantial variability in the definitions of sleep health indicators. Advocacy for the inclusion of sleep health within national surveillance systems may be warranted given the important role sleep plays in public health.