Circadian rest-activity rhythms and physical function in community-dwelling older men: The MrOS sleep study

Affiliations

¹ Research Institute, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA. Electronic address: susannaqiao@pitt.edu.
² Research Institute, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA.
³ Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA; Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California, USA; Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
⁶ Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA; Epic Systems Corporation, Verona, Wisconsin, USA.
⁷ Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁸ Research Institute, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA; Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁹ Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA; Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.

PMID: 41224602
DOI: 10.1016/j.sleh.2025.10.005

Circadian rest-activity rhythms and physical function in community-dwelling older men: The MrOS sleep study

Yujia Susanna Qiao et al. Sleep Health. 2025.

. 2025 Nov 11:S2352-7218(25)00223-2.

doi: 10.1016/j.sleh.2025.10.005. Online ahead of print.

Affiliations

¹ Research Institute, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA. Electronic address: susannaqiao@pitt.edu.
² Research Institute, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA.
³ Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA; Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California, USA; Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
⁶ Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA; Epic Systems Corporation, Verona, Wisconsin, USA.
⁷ Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁸ Research Institute, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA; Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁹ Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA; Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.

PMID: 41224602
DOI: 10.1016/j.sleh.2025.10.005

Abstract

Objectives: Circadian rest-activity rhythms (RARs) reflect ones' physical activity and sleep patterns over the 24-hour day, correlating with cardiometabolic risk, fall risk, and cognitive decline. Physical function also declines with advancing age, leading to disability and increased risk of mortality. Thus, we examined the associations between rest-activity rhythms and physical function in older men.

Methods: In the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) study, 2924 men (age = 76.3±5.5 years old, 90% white) completed the sleep ancillary study (baseline) with valid wrist-worn accelerometry data and physical function measures. Physical function measures included the following: 6-meter gait speed, chair stand speed, and grip strength, assessed at baseline and up to 4 follow-up visits over 6.4±3.9 years. Using 3 approaches to quantify rest-activity rhythms (functional principal components analysis, parametric, and non-parametric approaches), we evaluated cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between baseline rest-activity rhythm patterns and decline in physical function using mixed-effects models, adjusting for demographic, lifestyle, and medical covariates.

Results: Less strength of rest-activity rhythm (ie, principal component 1, amplitude, and relative amplitude) and lower regularity (pseudo-F statistic) were both cross-sectionally and longitudinally associated with poorer physical function, particularly with gait speed and chair stand speed. Yet, significant associations between timing-related rest-activity rhythm exposures and chair stand speed were only observed cross-sectionally. Overall, the magnitude of associations differed slightly across rest-activity rhythm estimation approaches and more substantially by physical function measures.

Conclusions: Rest-activity rhythms might be a potential risk modifiable factor to target for intervention in future studies if aiming to maintain better physical function, particularly lower extremity function.

Keywords: Accelerometry; Physical activity; Physical function; Sleep.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicts of interest Dr. Blackwell reports grants from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, grants from National Institute on Aging, grants from National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases , grants from National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, during the conduct of the study. Dr. Redline reports grants from NIH, grants from Google Inc, during the conduct of the study. Dr. Stone reports grants from Eli Lilly, personal fees from Axsome Therapeutics, personal fees from Sleep Research Society, outside the submitted work. No other authors have conflicts to disclose.

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Circadian rest-activity rhythms and physical function in community-dwelling older men: The MrOS sleep study

Affiliations

Circadian rest-activity rhythms and physical function in community-dwelling older men: The MrOS sleep study

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

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Full Text Sources