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Simple sleep questions can predict 12-year mortality in a rural population

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Abstract

There is apt evidence in favor of a significant association between sleep and mortality. So far, most studies examine sleep problems using comprehensive, time-consuming tools and questions. In this study, we investigated the ability of four simple “yes” or “no” answered questions (i.e. easiness to fall asleep, restful upon awakening, sleep satisfaction and presence of insomnia) to predict 12-year all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in a rural population of 1519 citizens. The sample consisted of 652 males and 867 females, with a mean age of 56.9 years old (range 15–102 years old). Age, gender, education, smoking, body mass index and health status were used as confounders in the Cox proportional hazard models. 293 (19.3%) deaths were recorded. After adjusting for confounders, difficulty to fall asleep was significantly related to an increased risk of cardiovascular death in smokers (aHR 3.71, 95% CI 1.01–13.62). Male individuals, not feeling restful upon awakening were at a significantly increased risk of all-cause (aHR 2.08, 95% CI 1.33–3.24) and cardiovascular mortality (aHR 6.24, 95% CI 1.90–20.49), in the latter case only if they were non-smokers. Smokers, not satisfied with their sleep, were at a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular death (aHR 5.44, 95% CI 1.73–17.09). The presence of insomnia significantly increased the risk of all-cause mortality (aHR 8.10, 95% CI 1.66–39.57) in smokers of basic education and cardiovascular mortality (aHR 26.68 95% CI 4.78–148.49) in smokers. In conclusion, simple sleep questions can predict mortality, at least in rural populations. Future studies should expand these results to other populations.

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The study received no funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Postgraduate Course “Stress Science and Health Promotion”, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Soranou Ephessiou Str., 4, 115-27, Athens, Greece

    Christina Darviri, Artemios Artemiadis, Xanthi Tigani & Panagiota Darvyri

  2. Department of Neurology, 417 Army Share Fund Hospital (417 NIMTS Hospital), Monis Petrakis Str., 10-12, 115-21, Athens, Greece

    Artemios Artemiadis

  3. Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture Technology, Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece, 302-00, Messolonghi, Greece

    Charalambos Gnardellis

Authors
  1. Christina Darviri
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  2. Artemios Artemiadis
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  3. Xanthi Tigani
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  4. Panagiota Darvyri
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  5. Charalambos Gnardellis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Artemios Artemiadis.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Darviri, C., Artemiadis, A., Tigani, X. et al. Simple sleep questions can predict 12-year mortality in a rural population. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 16, 253–258 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-018-0147-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-018-0147-9

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