Efficacy of Scalable CBT for Insomnia in Older Adults With Osteoarthritis Pain

Twenty-five percent of older adults experience significant osteoarthritis (OA)-related comorbid sleep disturbance. Insomnia is associated with substantial negative effects on function, mood, and medical resource utilization. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is evidence based and has been shown to be efficacious in populations with a variety of comorbid conditions including OA-related chronic pain. However, in-person CBT interventions are unlikely to be widely deployable in healthcare systems. Telephone delivery has the advantage of giving patients access to personalized, efficacious CBT-I interventions from home, increasing generalizability, and outreach to minority, rural, and other underserved populations. Older (60+ yrs) primary care patients across Washington State will be screened for severe persistent OA-related insomnia and pain. Two hundred and seventy patients will be randomized to either CBT-I or an education only attention control (EOC). Each treatment will consist of six 20-30 minute telephone-based sessions over an eight week period. Pre-treatment, post-treatment (2 months and 12 month) assessments will include measures of sleep, pain, fatigue, mood, and quality of life. A cost effectiveness evaluation of the intervention will also be conducted. The proposed research will determine if telephone CBT-I improves OA insomnia and associated outcomes in a state-wide primary care population of older adults, and inform policy decisions about widespread dissemination of telephone CBT-I in this and related patient populations.