The impact of home safety on sleep in a Latin American country

Abstract

Our findings suggest that safety in the home has an important effect on both sleep quality and duration, particularly among women. In contrast, after accounting for safety in the home, neighborhood safety does not impact sleep. Further research is warranted to identify mechanisms underlying the sex differences in susceptibility to poor sleep quality and shorter sleep duration, as well as to assess whether interventions addressing safety in the home can be used to improve sleep and overall health.

Neighborhood Factors as Predictors of Poor Sleep in the Sueño Ancillary Study of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos

“…These findings are consistent with previous studies that reported an association between short sleep duration and low neighborhood safety. [10][11][12][13][14][15][20][21][22] These prior studies however, relied on self-reported sleep duration, raising concern that the associations might reflect known systematic biases in the accuracy of self-report, rather than an actual effect on sleep per se. Our results demonstrate that the perception that one lives in an unsafe neighborhood is associated with an objective measure of short sleep.…”

“…In contrast, a prior study found perceived safety had a larger effect on self-reported sleep in women. 13 This difference may reflect the fact that the accuracy of self-report varies by sex. 31,43 Similarly, we found no evidence of heterogeneity in effect across other important subgroups such as age and nativity.…”

“…10 This suggests that effects of neighborhood characteristics on sleep may represent one pathway by which neighborhood environment has an impact on health outcomes. Exposure to violence and crime and feeling unsafe in one's neighborhood have been associated with reductions in both sleep duration [11][12][13] and sleep quality, 10,[12][13][14] and worse insomnia symptoms. 15 Similarly, increased noise in the neighborhood has been associated with higher prevalence of self-reported sleep disturbances.…”

“…11,[15][16][17][18][19] However, a major limitation of the existing literature linking adverse neighborhood features such as crime and violence with sleep has been the reliance on unvalidated measures of sleep. [10][11][12][13][14][20][21][22] While studies using actigraphy have evaluated the relationship between sleep and noise, these studies have been limited by small sample size, in-laboratory testing or low levels of noise that may limit generalizability of findings. 23,24 Our goal was to evaluate the relationship between neighborhood environment and validated measures of sleep in a large cohort of US Hispanics/Latinos, the largest racial/ethnic minority group in the United States and a group with a high prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.…”

Recent Updates in the Social and Environmental Determinants of Sleep Health

“…For example, one study using cross-sectional data from Mexico, Ghana, South Africa, India, China, and Russia finds that perceptions of neighborhood safety predict adverse sleep outcomes, with the strongest associations in Russia and China [8]. Similarly, feelings of being unsafe at home predict poor sleep quality among Argentinian adults, and this association fully attenuates the association between perceived neighborhood safety and sleep [9]. Interventions to improve sleep are also of international concern; a program evaluation study of the sleep quality of Argentinian adults found that a transition from residing in slums to improved living conditions improved sleep quality [10].…”