Genetic risk scores, perceived neighborhood disorder, and sleep duration

Most studies of neighborhood context and sleep health emphasize direct effects and fail to account for the role of genetics. In this paper, we draw on the socioecological model to examine the interplay of genetics, neighborhood context, and sleep health. We specifically examine the independent and joint effects of genetic risk scores (GRS) and perceived neighborhood disorder on sleep duration.

We combine genomic and cross-sectional survey data from the All of Us Research Program, a non-probability sample of 22 575 adults of European ancestry living in the United States. We use the sleep duration-increasing risk allele count for 78 genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to construct weighted genetic risk scores. Our analyses include an index of perceived neighborhood disorder and an objective measure of sleep duration based on wrist actigraphy.

Genetic risk scores are inversely associated with neighborhood disorder, positively associated with continuous sleep duration, and inversely associated with the odds of short sleep. Neighborhood disorder is inversely associated with continuous sleep duration and positively associated with the odds of short and long sleep. The association between genetic risk scores and sleep duration (continuous and categorical) is invariant across levels of neighborhood disorder.

Our analyses confirm the independent direct effects of genetic risk scores and neighborhood disorder on sleep duration. Our findings extend the socioecological model by assessing the role of genetics in the study of neighborhood context and sleep health. Although we observed a gene-environment correlation between genetic risk scores and perceived neighborhood disorder, there was little indication of genetic confounding and no evidence of gene-environment interaction.