Association Between Sleep Duration and Health Outcome in Elderly Taiwanese

SummaryBackgroundThe aim was to assess the relationship between sleep duration and self-rated health outcome in the elderly Taiwanese.MethodsThe data were drawn from the National Survey on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Health Promotion 2002 (HPKAP 2002) in Taiwan. Three thousand seven hundred and thirty-one elderly participants (≧ 65 years of age) completed this survey, including 1955 men (52.4%) and 1776 women (47.6%). The anonymous questionnaire collected information on demographic data, sleep duration, health status, and health behaviors. After adjusting for various risk factors, a multiple logistic regression model was applied to compare the participants sleeping an average of 6 to 8 hours/night with those sleeping ≦ 5 hours and ≧ 9 hours.ResultsA U-shaped relationship was found in elderly participants, with both short and long sleep durations and a higher risk of poor health perception (≦ 5 hours/night: OR = 1.13, 95% CI 0.93–1.36; ≧ 9 hours/night: OR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.01–1.75), depression (≦ 5 hours/night: OR = 1.35, 95% CI 1.02–1.86), chronic diseases (especially heart disease and limited activity), and unhealthy habits (≧ 9 hours/night: smoking – OR = 1.24, 95% CI 1.02–1.46; no exercise – OR = 1.52, 95% CI 1.17–1.97).ConclusionA U-shaped relationship was observed between the self-reported sleep duration with risk prevalence and health outcome in the elderly population, although not all results showed a significant difference. A progressively higher change was observed during short and long sleep durations in our study.