Type 2 diabetes mellitus and sleep characteristics: a population-based study in Tumbes, Peru

To determine if there is an association between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and some sleep characteristics: duration, sleep difficulties and quality, in a population aged between 30 and 69 years in Tumbes.

Cross-sectional study. The outcomes were sleep difficulty (sometimes/ almost never vs. frequently), sleep duration (normal, short, and long), and sleep quality (good and bad). The exposure of interest was the presence of T2DM assessed using the glucose tolerance test (without T2DM, with T2DM but without previous diagnosis, and with T2DM and with previous diagnosis). Poisson regression models were used to report prevalence ratio (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI).

A total of 1604 subjects were analyzed and the mean age was 48.2 years; 50.3% were women, 71 (4.4%) had T2DM without a previous diagnosis, and 105 (6.5%) had T2DM with a previous diagnosis. Regarding sleep characteristics, 12.0% had short sleep, 8.2% had long sleep, 3.7% had sleep difficulties, and 19.5% presented poor sleep quality. In a multivariable model, T2DM with previous diagnosis was associated with sleep difficulty (PR= 2.20; 95%CI: 1.13 - 4.27) and bad sleep quality (PR= 1.40; 95%CI: 1.05 - 1.92) compared to those without T2DM.

Individuals with previous diagnosis of T2DM had greater probability of presenting sleep difficulties and poor sleep quality. These results suggest the need to evaluate periodically the sleep characteristics of patients with T2DM.