Psychiatry Investig.  2018 Jan;15(1):78-83. 10.4306/pi.2018.15.1.78.

A Sleep Education and Hypnotics Reduction Program for Hospitalized Patients at a General Hospital

• Chung S
• Youn S
• Park B
• Lee S
• Kim C

• KMID: 2456126
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4306/pi.2018.15.1.78

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
We applied a program of sleep education and hypnotics reduction for inpatients (the i-sleep program). This study explored whether the i-sleep program is effective for reducing the prescription rate of sleeping pills to inpatients in a general hospital.
METHODS
We estimated the proportion of inpatients prescribed hypnotics at admission to and discharge from the hospital, excluding pediatric care units, before (2014) and after (2015) the program. In addition, we estimated the proportion of inpatients prescribed sleeping pills among all inpatients on the first day of each month of 2014 and 2015.
RESULTS
The proportion of inpatients prescribed hypnotics as discharge medication among inpatients who had been prescribed them at the time of admission decreased significantly, from 57.0% to 46.8%, after the i-sleep program (RR=0.82, 95% CI: 0.79-0.86). The proportion of inpatients newly prescribed sleeping pills after admission to the hospital did not significantly decrease (1.97% to 2.00%; RR=1.01, 95% CI: 0.96-1.07). The mean prescription rate of sleeping pills per day was 8.18% in 2014 and 7.78% in 2015.
CONCLUSION
The i-sleep program reduced the proportion of inpatients who continued to take sleeping pills from admission until discharge, although it did't reduce the prescription rate per day.

Keyword

Hypnotics; Inpatients; Insomnia; Sleep

MeSH Terms

Education*
Hospitals, General*
Humans
Hypnotics and Sedatives*
Inpatients
Prescriptions
Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders
Hypnotics and Sedatives