[Association of sleep with anxiety in the elderly aged 60 years and older in China]

Objective: To investigate the relationship of sleep duration and sleep quality with anxiety in the elderly aged 60 years and older in China. Methods: The elderly aged 60 years and older were selected from the China Short-term Health Effects of Air Pollution Study conducted between July 18, 2017 and February 7, 2018. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze the association of sleep duration and sleep quality with anxiety. Results: A total of 3 897 elderly aged 60 years and older were included in the study. The age of the elderly was (73.4±8.0) years old. Among the elderly surveyed, 6.5% were defined with anxiety, and 18.7% reported poor sleep quality. Multivariate logistic regression models showed shorter sleep duration was the risk factor for anxiety in the elderly that after adjusting for factors such as general demographics, socioeconomic factors, lifestyle, health status, social support and ambient fine particulates exposure. Compared with the elderly with 7 hours of sleep duration daily, the OR (95%CI) of anxiety for those with sleep duration ≤ 6 hours was 2.09 (1.49-2.93). Compared with those with good sleep quality, the OR (95%CI) of anxiety for those with poor sleep quality was 5.12 (3.88-6.77). We also found statistically significant correlations of the scores of subscales of Pittsburgh sleep quality index with anxiety, in which the effects of sleep disturbance, subjective sleep quality and daytime dysfunction scores were most obvious, the ORs (95%CI) were 4.63 (3.55-6.04), 2.75 (2.33-3.23) and 2.50 (2.19-2.86), respectively. Subgroup analysis showed that the association of sleep duration and sleep quality with anxiety was more obvious in males and in those aged <80 years. Conclusion: Shorter sleep duration and poor sleep quality are associated with anxiety in the elderly in China.