Association between Nocturnal Sleep Status and Multimorbidity among Community-dwelling Older Adults in China

Abstract

Background With the rapid progression of aging in China, the challenge of multimorbidity has become a significant concern for both public health and clinical practice. Nocturnal sleep status, including sleep duration and quality, is crucial for regulating body metabolism and physiological functions in the elderly. However, current research on the relationship between nocturnal sleep status and multimorbidity was limited to specific regions or the middle-aged population. The association between nocturnal sleep status and prevalence of multimorbidity among community-dwelling older adults remains ambiguous. Objective To investigate the association between nocturnal sleep status and prevalence of multimorbidity among community-dwelling older adults. Methods In April 2023, a total of 11 917 community-dwelling older adults from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity and Happy Family Study (CLHLS-HF, wave 2018) were selected as the participants. Multivariate Logistic regression was used to explore the association of sleep duration and sleep quality with the prevalence of multimorbidity, represented by odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). Additionally, restrictive cubic splines (RCS) based on Logistic regression analysis were utilized to analyze the dose-response relationship between sleep duration and prevalence of multimorbidity. Results Of the 11 917 community-dwelling older adults, with an average age of (84.4±11.4) years ranged from 65.0 to 117.0 years, 6 477 were females (54.35%) and 5 440 were males (45.65%). Multivariate Logistic regression results after adjusting for covariates such as gender, age, region, and years of education, indicated that compared to those with 6-8 h of nocturnal sleep duration, older adults with shorter sleep duration (<6 h) had a higher prevalence of multimorbidity (OR=1.51, 95%CI=1.36-1.67, P<0.05) ; compared to those with good sleep quality, individuals with fair sleep quality (OR=1.34, 95%CI=1.22-1.46, P<0.05) and poor sleep quality (OR=2.14, 95%CI=1.91-2.40, P<0.05) were associated with higher prevalence of multimorbidity. RCS plots revealed a "U" -shaped nonlinear association between sleep duration and prevalence of multimorbidity, with an optimal sleep duration of approximately 7 hours. Conclusion Community-dwelling older adults with sleep durations less than 6 hours, fair or poor sleep quality, are associated with an increased prevalence of multimorbidity. The optimal sleep duration for community-dwelling older adults is approximately 7 hours. Normal sleep duration and good sleep quality are important for the prevention of multimorbidity.

Keywords

• aged|multimorbidity|sleep duration|sleep quality|association study