Multidimensional sleep health and its association with fatigue among patients undergoing hemodialysis in China

While the high prevalence and health impacts of sleep in hemodialysis patients are well-documented, there has been limited exploration of multidimensional sleep health in Chinese cohorts. This study aimed to investigate the association between multidimensional sleep health and fatigue among patients undergoing hemodialysis in China.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in patients undergoing hemodialysis at a hospital in Nanjing, China. The Fatigue Scale-14 and RU_SATED 2.0 were administered to measure fatigue and sleep health, respectively. Sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics and disease-related laboratory indices were concurrently collected. Multivariable linear regression was employed to examine the relationship between multidimensional sleep health and fatigue, with an interaction term included to assess the moderating effects of age.

A total of 249 patients (69.1% male, 56.5 years old on average) completed the survey. Participants scored 7.15 ± 3.27 and 7.53 ± 2.57 on fatigue and sleep health, respectively. After adjusting for sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics and disease-related indices, multidimensional sleep health demonstrated a statistically significant association with fatigue (B = - 0.36, 95% CI: -0.50, - 0.21, P < 0.001), physical fatigue (B = - 0.22, 95% CI: -0.34, - 0.11, P < 0.001) and mental fatigue (B = - 0.13, 95% CI: -0.20, - 0.06, P < 0.001). Moreover, age exhibited a significant moderation effect on the relationship between sleep health and fatigue (B = 0.02, 95%CI: 0.01, 0.03, P = 0.017) and mental fatigue (B = 0.01, 95%CI: 0.00, 0.01, P < 0.001).

Better composite sleep health was associated with lower levels of fatigue, highlighting the potential clinical relevance of sleep health in relation to fatigue.