Takeaway
- Frequent sleep disturbances were associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality.
- The risk was pronounced in patients with diabetes and frequent sleep disturbances compared with those with diabetes without frequent sleep disturbances.
Why this matters
- Patients with diabetes generally have poorer sleep quality which has been linked to worse glycaemic control.
- Whether the combination of diabetes and frequent sleep disturbances influences mortality risk has not been previously investigated.
Study design
- A study of 487,728 participants (mean follow-up time, 8.9 years) from the UK Biobank.
- Primary outcomes: all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.
- Funding: US National Institutes of Health and others.
Key results
- During the mean follow-up period of 8.9 years, 19,177 deaths from all causes and 3874 deaths from CVD were reported.
- Overall, 118,217 (24.2%) participants “never/rarely” experienced sleep disturbances, 233,177 (47.8%) experienced sleep disturbances “sometimes” and 136,334 (28.0%) “usually” experienced sleep disturbances.
- In age- and sex-adjusted models, frequent sleep disturbances were linked to an increased risk of all-cause mortality (adjusted HR [aHR], 1.31; 95% CI, 1.26-1.37), which remained significant in the fully adjusted model (aHR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.09-1.18).
- In age- and sex-adjusted models, frequent sleep disturbances were significantly associated with an increased risk of CVD mortality (aHR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.22-1.44), but this association did not remain significant in the fully adjusted models (aHR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.93-1.12).
- Both diabetes and frequent sleep disturbances vs diabetes alone were associated with a greater risk of all-cause mortality (aHR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.04-1.22).
- In the fully adjusted model, the risk of all-cause mortality increased with (aHR; 95% CI):
- frequent sleep disturbances (1.11; 1.07-1.15);
- diabetes (1.67; 1.57-1.76); and
- diabetes and frequent sleep disturbances (1.87; 1.75-2.01).
Limitations
- Results may have limited generalisability.
This clinical summary originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
