Prevalence of pre-stroke sleep apnea risk and short or long sleep duration in a bi-ethnic stroke population

•Αhigh risk of pre-stroke sleep apnea (SA) is common in ischemic stroke patients.•The prevalence of high pre-stroke SA risk was not higher in Mexican Americans (MAs) than non-Hispanic whites (NHWs).•Short or long sleep duration prevalence was not higher in MAs than NHWs.•Sleep duration and pre-stroke SA risk do not explain bi-ethnic stroke disparities.

BackgroundThe ethnic disparity in ischemic stroke between Mexican Americans (MAs) and non-Hispanic whites (NHWs) may be partly attributable to disparities in sleep and its disorders. We therefore assessed whether pre-stroke sleep apnea symptoms (SA risk) and pre-stroke sleep duration differed between MAs and NHWs.MethodsMA and NHW ischemic stroke survivors in the Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi (BASIC) project reported sleep duration and SA symptoms on the validated Berlin questionnaire, both with respect to their pre-stroke baseline. Log binomial and linear regression models were used to test the unadjusted and adjusted (demographics and vascular risk factors) associations of high-risk Berlin scores and sleep duration with ethnicity.ResultsAmong 862 subjects, 549 (63.7%) were MA and 514 (59.6%) had a high risk of pre-stroke SA. The MA and NHW subjects showed no ethnic difference, after adjustment for potential confounders, in pre-stroke SA risk (risk ratio (95% confidence interval (CI)): 1.06 (0.93, 1.20)) or in pre-stroke sleep duration (on average MAs slept 2.0 fewer minutes than NHWs, 95% CI: −18.8, 14.9 min).ConclusionsPre-stroke SA symptoms are highly prevalent, but ethnic differences in SA risk and sleep duration appear unlikely to explain ethnic stroke disparities.