Rauch Lisa, Schneider Torsten, Wendt Claus
Department of Social Science, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany.
Front Public Health. 2024 Dec 5;12:1430574. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1430574. eCollection 2024.
Sleep-related complaints affect a significant proportion of the adult population in many societies. Despite the prevalence of symptoms and potential secondary and comorbid conditions, the utilization of professional help is quite low. The underlying reasons for this phenomenon have yet to be adequately investigated. To address this gap, we expand the conventional explanatory models to encompass the perceived cause as an explanatory factor. This is aimed to contribute to a better understanding of the help-seeking behavior and to create the basis for possible measures.
The empirical basis of the study is a quantitative data set collected in Germany in 2015 comprising 3,000 individuals between the ages of 40 and 75. Of these individuals, 761 reported experiencing sleep-related complaints. In our logistic regression, the binary dependent variable is whether professional help has already been sought. In addition to the factors included in the behavioral model of health service use, we utilize the perceived cause as a predictor, categorizing the variable as follows: exclusively mental, partially mental, and not mental.
Our analysis shows that individuals who attributed their sleep disturbances solely to their psyche were significantly less likely to seek professional help (AME: -0.158**). These differences remain significant after controlling for the severity of the complaints, their duration, and other covariates (AME: -0.117**). The data also suggest that this group is more likely to seek self-help through medication.
The results indicate the importance of focusing healthcare systems and public health policy on sleep-related complaints and their management. The aim is not only to alleviate sleep complaints, but also to reduce the risk of secondary diseases and to identify possible comorbidities. Additionally, it is a factor in reducing safety risks for the general public. Therefore, various measures should be implemented, including destigmatizing, improving health literacy, a more comprehensive offer of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT-I), and a more thorough examinations by physicians.
在许多社会中，与睡眠相关的抱怨影响着相当一部分成年人口。尽管症状普遍存在，且存在潜在的继发性和共病情况，但寻求专业帮助的比例却相当低。这一现象的根本原因尚未得到充分调查。为了填补这一空白，我们扩展了传统的解释模型，将感知到的原因作为一个解释因素。这旨在有助于更好地理解寻求帮助的行为，并为可能采取的措施奠定基础。
该研究的实证基础是2015年在德国收集的一个定量数据集，包括3000名年龄在40至75岁之间的个体。在这些个体中，761人报告有与睡眠相关的抱怨。在我们的逻辑回归中，二元因变量是是否已经寻求过专业帮助。除了健康服务使用行为模型中包含的因素外，我们将感知到的原因作为一个预测变量，将该变量分类如下：完全是心理原因、部分是心理原因和不是心理原因。
我们的分析表明，那些将睡眠障碍完全归因于心理的个体寻求专业帮助的可能性显著降低（平均边际效应：-0.158**）。在控制了抱怨的严重程度、持续时间和其他协变量后，这些差异仍然显著（平均边际效应：-0.117**）。数据还表明，这一组更有可能通过药物进行自助。
结果表明，将医疗保健系统和公共卫生政策重点放在与睡眠相关的抱怨及其管理上具有重要意义。目的不仅是缓解睡眠抱怨，还包括降低继发性疾病的风险和识别可能的共病情况。此外，这也是降低公众安全风险的一个因素。因此，应采取各种措施，包括消除污名化、提高健康素养、更全面地提供认知行为疗法（CBT-I）以及医生进行更彻底的检查。
