Abstract
Objective
To estimate health care and productivity costs associated with insomnia symptoms in
Canadian adults.
Methods
Three pieces of information were needed to calculate estimates based on a prevalence-based
approach: (1) the pooled relative risk estimates of health outcomes consistently associated
with insomnia symptoms obtained from recent meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies;
(2) the direct (health care) and indirect (lost productivity due to premature mortality)
costs of these health outcomes using the Economic Burden of Illness in Canada information;
and (3) the prevalence of insomnia symptoms in Canadian men (18.1%) and women (29.5%)
obtained from a nationally-representative survey.
Results
The direct, indirect, and total costs of insomnia symptoms in Canada in 2021 were
$1.9 billion, $12.6 million, and $1.9 billion, respectively. This value represents
1.9% of the overall burden of illness costs for 2021 in Canada. The 2 most expensive
chronic diseases attributable to insomnia symptoms were type 2 diabetes ($754 million)
and depression ($706 million). The main contributor to the costs for type 2 diabetes
and depression was prescription drugs. A 5% decrease in insomnia symptoms (from 23.8%
to 18.8%) would result in an estimated $353 million in avoided costs while a 5% increase
in insomnia symptoms (from 23.8% to 28.8%) would result in an estimated $333 million
in additional expenditures yearly.
Conclusions
Insomnia symptoms greatly contribute to the economic burden of illness in Canada.
Reducing the prevalence of insomnia symptoms would reduce its societal burden.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 29, 2022
Accepted:
September 24,
2022
Received in revised form:
September 14,
2022
Received:
July 19,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
