Sexual Difference in Effect of Long Sleep Duration on Incident Sarcopenia after Two Years in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Abstract

Background: Sarcopenia, a progressive and generalized skeletal muscle disorder involving an accelerated loss of muscle mass and muscle function, is a common condition in older individuals. This study aimed to determine whether sleep latency and duration were independently associated with incident sarcopenia and to explore sex differences in these associations.

Methods: This 2-year longitudinal analysis of cohort study data included community-dwelling participants of the 2016-2017 Korea Frailty and Aging Cohort Study aged 70-84 years at baseline survey who completed the 2-year follow-up survey. Logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) for sarcopenia and sarcopenia components. Sarcopenia was defined using the 2019 Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia guidelines.

Results: Among 1,353 non-sarcopenic participants in the baseline survey, 1,160 (85.8%) and 193 (14.2%) were classified as non-sarcopenic and sarcopenic, respectively, after 2 years. Long sleep duration (>8 hours per night) was associated with incident sarcopenia in male-OR=2.41 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.13-5.17) after adjusting for confounding factors. Long sleep duration was specifically associated with the development of low skeletal muscle mass and low muscle strength in male-adjusted OR=2.16 (95% CI, 1.02-4.61) and adjusted OR=2.70 (95% CI, 1.13-6.43), respectively. In female, compared to normal sleep duration, the adjusted ORs for long and short sleep duration for sarcopenia were 2.093 (95% CI, 0.753-5.812; p=0.157) and 0.852 (95% CI, 0.520-1.393; p=0.522), respectively, which were not significant.

Conclusion: In male, long sleep duration was associated with incident sarcopenia, specifically the development of low muscle mass and low muscle strength, but not with low physical performance.

Keywords: Aged; Cohort studies; Sarcopenia; Sex characteristics; Sleep.