To Study the Prevalence of Insomnia in Geriatric COPD Patients Who Are Enrolled in a Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program.

Hackensack University Medical Center Institutional Review Board

PROTOCOL: To study the prevalence of insomnia in geriatric COPD patients who are enrolled in a pulmonary rehabilitation program.

I. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

RATIONALE:

The goal for geriatric patients with COPD and enrolled in pulmonary rehabilitation programs is to improve the quality of life. COPD is known to be worse at night as are other respiratory problems such as CHF. Saturation is known to get worse nocturnally as well. Furthermore, these COPD rehabilitation patients tend to be older, and increasing age is associated with an increase in the incidence of sleep disorders. We suspect that there is an increase in the incidence of difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep in COPD patients. A preliminary study was done by the chest medicine specialist in our group, but the results were not comparable to national statistics and were inconclusive. We plan to further evaluate the geriatric COPD patients in pulmonary rehabilitation with initial screening questionnaire and diagnostic screening questionnaires (MMSE, Beck's Anxiety Inventory, Beck's Depression Inventory, and Epworth Sleepiness Scale).