Associations Between Sleep Duration and Activity of Daily Living Disability Among Older Adults in China:...

China has the largest elderly population globally; the growth rate of the aged tendency of the population was higher than that of Western countries. Given the distinctions in historical, ethnic, and economic status as well as socio-cultural background, Chinese adults had different sleep patterns compared with adults in other countries. Considering the heavy disease burden caused by activities of daily living (ADL) disability, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to test the hypothesis that individuals with short and longer sleep duration are more likely to have ADL disability.

ADL disability is a common condition affecting the quality of life among older people. This study aimed to explore the associations between sleep duration and ADL disability among middle-aged and older adults in China.

This cross-sectional study used data from 17,607 participants from the 2018 CHARLS (from 2018 to 2020), an ongoing representative survey of adults aged 45 years or older and their spouses. Self-reported sleep duration per night was obtained from face-to-face interviews. The ADL was measured using a 6-item summary assessed with an ADL scale that included eating, dressing, getting into or out of bed, bathing, using the toilet, and continence. Multiple generalized linear regression models-adjusted for age, sex, education, marital status, tobacco and alcohol use, depression, place of residence, sensory impairment, self-reported health status, life satisfaction, daytime napping, chronic disease condition, and sample weights-were used.

Data were analyzed from 17,607 participants, of whom 8375 (47.6%) were men. The mean (SD) age was 62.7 (10.0) years. Individuals with 4 hours or less (odds ratio [OR] 1.91, 95% CI 1.60-2.27; P<.001), 5 hours (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.09-1.62; P=.006), 9 hours (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.13-1.93; P<.001), and 10 hours or more (OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.47-2.14; P<.001) of sleep per night had a higher risk of ADL disability than those in the reference group (7 hours per night) after adjusting for several covariates. Restricted cubic splines analysis suggested a U-shaped association between sleep duration and ADL disability. When sleep duration fell below 7 hours, an increased sleep duration was associated with a significantly low risk of ADL disability, which was negatively correlated with sleep duration until it fell below 7 hours (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.79-0.87; P<.001). When sleep duration exceeded 7 hours, the risk of ADL disability would increase facing prolonged sleep duration (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.12-1.27; P<.001). ADL disability should be monitored in individuals with insufficient (≤4 or 5 hours per night) or excessive (9 or ≥10 hours per night) sleep duration.

In this study, a U-shaped association between sleep duration and ADL disability was found. Future longitudinal studies are needed to establish temporality and examine the mechanisms of the associations between sleep duration and ADL disability.