[Influence of sleep and chrononutrition on hypertension and diabetes: a population-based study]

The objective is to evaluate the influence of sleep and chrononutrition on hypertension and diabetes in the adult population (18 years or older) in a municipality in Southern Brazil. This is a population-based cross-sectional study, developed in Criciúma, State of Santa Catarina, in 2019. The exposure variables were sleep duration and quality, and two of the main aspects of chrononutrition, the number of daily meals and the presence of breakfast. The outcomes studied were diabetes mellitus and systemic arterial hypertension. Crude and adjusted Poisson regression with robust variance was used to evaluate the associations between exposures and outcomes. For all analyses, the effect of the sample design was considered, and the significance level adopted was 5%. In total, 820 patients were evaluated. The prevalence of diabetes and hypertension was of 19.9% and 44.1%, respectively. Individuals with worse sleep quality had a higher prevalence of 33% for diabetes and 17% for hypertension, compared to those with good quality of sleep. Those who had four or more meals per day had a 16% lower prevalence of hypertension, when compared to those who had less than four meals. We concluded that the quality of sleep and the number of daily meals, a feeding behavior related to chrononutrition, were related to hypertension and diabetes. These results highlight the importance of public health actions that address new strategies for coping with these diseases focused on sleep quality and chrononutrition.