Symptoms of Insomnia Among Adolescents in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas

Study Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of symptoms of insomnia among adolescents living along the United States-Mexico border and to examine whether ethnicity and birthplace affect risk for such symptoms.

Design: Cross-sectional school-based survey using a version of the 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, modified to elicit data on sleep problems.

Setting: A probability sample of 13 high schools selected from more than 40 high schools in the 4 southernmost counties in Texas-the Lower Rio Grande Valley-contiguous with Mexico.

Participants: All ninth-grade students who agreed to participate (n = 5,118).

Measurements: The sleep module consisted of queries about trouble initiating asleep, trouble maintaining sleep, early morning waking, nonrestorative sleep, quality of sleep, and amount of sleep.

Results: Symptoms of insomnia were common, with 12.4% of respondents meeting symptom criteria for insomnia almost every day of the past month. Females were more likely to report insomnia, as were youths reporting lower socioeconomic status. Crude odds ratios suggested foreign-born and those who identified themselves as "Mexican" rather than "Mexican American" were at lower risk of insomnia. However, multivariate analyses eliminated these differences.

Conclusions: More comparative research is needed to ascertain whether and how ethnic culture affects risk for disordered sleep.