Study Objectives: Pattern of sleep duration and its correlates have rarely been reported in China. This study examined the sleep duration and its relationship with sociodemographic variables, lifestyle, mental health, and chronic diseases in a large Chinese adult population. Methods: This cross-sectional study used multistage stratified cluster sampling. A total of 17,320 participants from Jilin province were selected and interviewed using standardized assessment tools. Basic socio-demographic and clinical data were collected. Sleep duration was classified as short (< 7 h per day), long (> 9 h per day) and medium sleep (7-9 h per day). Results: The mean age of the sample was 42.60 ± 10.60 y, with 51.4% being female. The mean sleep duration was 7.31 ± 1.44 h. Short and long sleepers accounted for 30.9% and 6.9% of the sample, respectively. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that older age, current smoking, irregular meal pattern, lack of physical exercise, poor mental health, and chronic diseases or multimorbidity were positively associated with short sleep. Being married and living in rural areas were, however, negatively associated with short sleep. In addition, living in rural area, current smoking, current alcohol use and lack of physical exercise were positively associated with long sleep, while older age and lower education were negatively associated with long sleep. Conclusion: Given the high frequency of short sleep and its negative effect on health, health professionals should pay more attention to sleep patterns in general health care. Nationwide epidemiologic surveys in China are needed to further explore the relationship between sleep duration and health.
I NTRO DUCTI O NTo maintain optimal health, sleep duration of 7-9 h is generally needed for adults.1 There is compelling evidence that both habitual short and long sleep durations are associated with poor health outcomes.2-4 A U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and mortality was found in some but not all studies, 5,6 although the explanation for this association is unknown.7 It is assumed that short sleep could be due to voluntary sleep restriction or certain chronic diseases, whereas long sleep is commonly associated with sleep disturbances, chronic diseases, and psychiatric disorders. 8 Identifying the relationship between sleep duration and other clinical variables may help understand the pathomechanism of increased mortality associated with short and long sleep duration.
9Most studies on sleep duration and its correlates have been conducted in the West. Evidence is accumulating that socioeconomic and cultural factors play an important role in sleep-related disturbances including short and long sleep duration. [10][11][12][13][14] Over the past two decades, China has experienced rapid socioeconomic changes leading to a number of social problems including increased divorce rates, smoking and alcohol use, BRIEF SUMMARY Current Knowledge/Study Rationale: Habitual short and long sleep durations are usually associated with po...
