Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep 20;7(1):e000652.
doi: 10.1136/bmjdrc-2019-000652. eCollection 2019.

Multiple sleep dimensions and type 2 diabetes risk among women in the Sister Study: differences by race/ethnicity

Ketrell L McWhorter  1 , Yong-Moon Park  1 , Symielle A Gaston  1 , Kacey B Fang  2 , Dale P Sandler  1 , Chandra L Jackson  1
Affiliations

Multiple sleep dimensions and type 2 diabetes risk among women in the Sister Study: differences by race/ethnicity

Ketrell L McWhorter et al. BMJ Open Diabetes Res Care. .

Abstract

Objective: Poor sleep has been associated with type 2 diabetes. Since racial/ethnic minorities experience a disproportionately high prevalence of poor sleep and type 2 diabetes, we sought to determine the relationships between multiple sleep dimensions and incident type 2 diabetes and to investigate if these relationships vary by race/ethnicity.

Research design and methods: Prospective data were analyzed from the Sister Study, which enrolled 50 884 women from 2003 to 2009. Participants self-reported sleep duration, sleep latency, night awakenings, and napping at baseline, and a physician's diagnosis of type 2 diabetes at follow-up. Multivariable-adjusted HRs and 95% CIs were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models.

Results: Among the 39 071 eligible participants, 87% self-identified as white, 8% black and 5% Hispanic/Latina. The mean follow-up period was 8.5±2.1 years and 1785 type 2 diabetes cases were reported. The incidence rate per 1000 person-years was 5.4 for whites, 13.3 for blacks and 11.6 for Hispanics/Latinas. There was a positive but non-significant increased risk of type 2 diabetes among women who reported short sleep, latency >30 min and frequent night awakenings. In fully-adjusted models, frequent napping was associated with a 19% (HR 1.19, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.37) higher type 2 diabetes risk in the overall sample. Poor sleep among racial/ethnic minorities ranged from a 1.4-fold to a 3.2-fold higher type 2 diabetes risk than whites with recommended sleep.

Conclusions: Frequent napping was associated with higher type 2 diabetes risk. Racial/ethnic minorities with poor sleep had a higher type 2 diabetes risk than whites with recommended sleep.

Keywords: sleep.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

References

    1. Rowley WR, Bezold C, Arikan Y, et al. . Diabetes 2030: insights from yesterday, today, and future trends. Popul Health Manag 2017;20:6–12. 10.1089/pop.2015.0181 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Trikkalinou A, Papazafiropoulou AK, Melidonis A. Type 2 diabetes and quality of life. World J Diabetes 2017;8:120–9. 10.4239/wjd.v8.i4.120 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Narayan KMV, Boyle JP, Geiss LS, et al. . Impact of recent increase in incidence on future diabetes burden: U.S., 2005-2050. Diabetes Care 2006;29:2114–6. 10.2337/dc06-1136 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cappuccio FP, D'Elia L, Strazzullo P, et al. . Quantity and quality of sleep and incidence of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Diabetes Care 2010;33:414–20. 10.2337/dc09-1124 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gangwisch JE, Heymsfield SB, Boden-Albala B, et al. . Sleep duration as a risk factor for diabetes incidence in a large US sample. Sleep 2007;30:1667–73. 10.1093/sleep/30.12.1667 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types