Effects and differences of sleep duration on the risk of new-onset chronic disease conditions in middle-aged and elderly populations.

BACKGROUND

Few longitude cohort studies investigated the risk of the duration of nighttime sleep and naps to the new-onset common chronic disease conditions (CDCs) in middle-aged (45-60) and the elderly (age ≥ 60) populations using an age-stratified strategy.

METHODS

The 7025 participants from The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were screened as eligible subjects. Established 13 cohorts with CDCs, acquired their' sleep records in 2011, and obtained new-onset incidents of CDCs during follow-up in 2011-2018. Performed risk association analyses between sleep duration and 13 new-onset CDCs respectively.

RESULTS

New-onset risk of four CDCs decreased with increasing nighttime sleep (p-nonlinear>0.05). The risk threshold was approximately 7 hours in middle-aged people and 6 hours in the elderly. For the middle-aged population, compared with 7-9hours sleep, <5hour and 5-7hours nighttime sleep were associated with 1.312∼1.675 times more risk of hypertension, kidney disease, diabetes or high blood sugar status, and multimorbidity; Compared with no nap, a 0-30 min nap was associated with 1.413(1.087∼1.837) times the heart disease risk. In the elderly, < 5 hours of night sleep was a significant risk factor for four CDCs including kidney disease and multimorbidity, etc. A long night's sleep (>9 hours) was connected with 61.2% reduction in risk of memory disease, a >90 min nap increased 62% risk of memory disease, and a 0-30 min nap was associated with higher risks of heart disease, hypertension, and a lower kidney disease risk.

CONCLUSIONS

Nighttime sleep and daytime naps may have their own implications for the new-onset CDCs' risk in the aging process.