Associations between residential environmental health and sleep quality: Potential mechanisms

Unraveling the Threads: Sleep Difficulties, Neighborhood Physical Disorder, and Subjective Cognitive Decline in Older Americans

Background

Research suggests that the neighborhood in which people live can be a risk or protective factor for various health outcomes, including cognitive decline to Alzheimer's disease. Similar to the impact of neighborhood on health outcomes, sleep difficulties have been linked to cognitive function in older adults. However, few studies have examined how neighborhood physical disorders moderate the effects of sleep on subjective cognitive decline (SCD).

Objective

The study examined the moderating effect of neighborhood factors on the relationship between sleep difficulties and SCD.

Methods

Data were obtained from 2,494 respondents (1,065 males and 1,429 females) from Wave 11 of the National Health and Aging Trends (NHATS) data. Sleep difficulties were operationalized as the presence of difficulties in falling and staying asleep. Neighborhood physical disorder (e.g., vandalism, graffiti) was based on interviewer observations of respondents' neighborhoods. SCD was operationalized as subjective reports of increasing or worse memory loss in the past 12 months and present memory rating. We utilized Linear regression to test neighborhood physical disorder as a moderator of the relationship between sleep difficulties and SCD.

Results

We found a significant interaction between sleep difficulties and neighborhood physical disorder on SCD (β=0.03, SE = 0.01, 95% CI[0.00,0.51], p < 0.001). Participants who reported higher average sleep difficulties and higher levels of neighborhood physical disorder were more likely to report SCD.

Conclusions

Our findings add to inform future health interventions and policy recommendations that address modifiable sources of cognitive decline and risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Self-reported sleep status and influencing factors: a web-based national cross-sectional survey in China

OBJECTIVES

To investigate self-reported sleep duration, sleep timing, sleep status and influencing factors in the Chinese population.

METHODS

This web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2022, covering 31 provinces (91%) in China. 11,000 questionnaires were collected, of which 8970 were valid for analysis. Self-reported sleep habits, problems and quality were investigated. Good or fair sleep ratings, enough duration, regular, with no sleep disturbances and <30 min sleep latency was defined as a composite variable: 'Good sleep'. Factors influencing sleep patterns and 'Good sleep' were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression.

RESULTS

Most participants sleep less than 7 h per night (55.13%), usually go to bed at 10-12 pm (47.99%), wake up at 6-8 am (49.86%), and take less than 30 min to fall asleep (66.30%) with regular sleep schedule (76.01%). Only 12.36% have 'Good sleep'. In the past 3 months, 46.80% of the participants reported symptoms of insomnia, and 21.54% had snoring problems. Among the adults, the young, males, college students, freelancers, and those who resided in urban areas and pandemic-free areas slept later, and the northerners woke up earlier. The adults with low-moderate and moderate income and the minors at elementary and middle school slept earlier and woke up earlier. Mid-aged adults who often napped at noon were more likely to have 'Good sleep' than any other age group, and urban dwellers with the same habit were more likely to have 'Good sleep' than people dwelled in other regions. While people who slept late, woke up too early or too late, slept too little or too much, resided at GMT 7-8 area or pandemic area, had high income, or took up some occupations (entrepreneurs/individuals, professionals, manual and non-manual workers, housewives) were less likely to get a 'Good sleep'.

CONCLUSIONS

The national survey provided a sleep profile of the Chinese population. Both socio-economic status and personal sleep hygiene habits had an impact on 'Good sleep'.

Sleep duration among adults exposed to family member incarceration during childhood

OBJECTIVES

The current study examines the association between family member incarceration during childhood and sleep duration among a national sample of adults (ages 18-80+).

METHODS

We employ data from the 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (N = 116,631). We use stepwise, multinomial logistic regression to examine associations between exposure to family member incarceration during childhood and sleep duration during adulthood. We also utilize the Karlson-Holm-Breen method to investigate whether indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage, and poor mental and physical health attenuate this relationship. Finally, to examine the robustness of associations between family member incarceration and sleep duration, we used a strategic comparison approach in which participants experiencing family member incarceration were compared to participants experiencing alternative adverse childhood experiences in the absence of family member incarceration.

RESULTS

Findings demonstrate a significant association between family member incarceration and sleep duration, with particularly strong associations with short and long sleep durations (relative to optimum sleep duration). However, poor mental and physical health during adulthood and socioeconomic disadvantage significantly attenuated these associations. Strategic comparison models also revealed that the association between family member incarceration during childhood and sleep duration is robust to the accumulation of other childhood adversities.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that strategies are needed among public health practitioners, physicians, and sleep professionals to mitigate the potential adverse effects of family member incarceration during childhood on sleep duration among adults.

What complex factors influence sleep quality in college students? PLS-SEM vs. fsQCA

Introduction

Sleep quality has a significant impact on the health-related quality of life, particularly among college students. This study proposes a framework for identifying factors that influence college students' sleep quality, including stress, self-control, bedtime habits, and neighborhood environment.

Methods

The study employed a cross-sectional analytical approach on a convenience sample of 255 medical students from a private university in China during the 2021/2022 academic year, of which 80.39% (205) were women. Two complementary methodologies, partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), and fuzzy sets qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), were utilized in the study.

Results

The results of the PLS-SEM analysis suggest that Stress and Self-control act as mediating variables in the model, with Bedtime habits and Neighborhood environment influencing sleep quality through these variables. Additionally, the fsQCA analysis reveals that Bedtime habits and Neighborhood environment can combine with Stress and Self-control, respectively, to influence sleep quality.

Discussion

These findings provide insight into how multiple factors, such as Stress, Self-control, Bedtime habits, and Neighborhood environment, can impact college students' sleep quality, and can be used to develop intervention programs aimed at improving it. Moreover, the use of both methodologies enables the expansion of new methodological approaches that can be applied to different contexts.