Association Between Sleep Duration and Hypertension in Middle-aged and Elderly Population in China

Abstract

Hypertension is one of the most important global public health problems today, especially among middle-aged and older adults. Numerous studies have been done to explore the risk factors of hypertension, among which sleep duration, has aroused immense attention. However, no consistent conclusion has been drawn and the empirical evidence from China was scarce. This study aims to investigate the association between sleep duration and onset of hypertension among Chinese middle-aged and older adults based on China and Health Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHALRS).The study conducted a survival analysis of participants from CHARLS from 2011 to 2015. A total of 7655 participants were included in this study. Information on self-reported sleep duration, hypertension, quality of sleep, nap, age, sex, smoking, drinking, health insurance, body mass index (BMI), Hukou status, marital status, highest education level, diabetes or high blood sugar and dyslipidemia was collected. Kaplan-Meier estimate and cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate for the onset of hypertension in relation to sleep duration. Subgroup analysis was conducted to evaluate the age difference. There was no significant association between self-reported sleep duration and hypertension in the whole sample, but in the subgroup of older adults aged more than 60, the cox model reported lower hazard ratio (HR) for those with sleep duration 6-7 hours than reference group (7-8 hours) (HR=0.758, 95% CI 0.606-0.948). Although no significant relationship was found between sleep duration and hypertension among middle-aged and older Chinese population, this study revealed that sleep for 6-7 hours was a protective factor of hypertension among older adults.