According to a study conducted by public health researchers from the University of California, Irvine and the University of Michigan School of Public Health, sleep disturbance and sleep apnea had a significant association with having multiple chronic conditions.
The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, fills a gap in sleep health disparities research by focusing on the association of sleep measures (like the duration and quality of sleep) and complex multimorbidities among Chinese and Korean Americans.
Multimorbidity is a term used to describe the onset of more than one chronic condition, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer occuring at the same time. This condition results in more frequent healthcare visits, multiple medications, and overall lower quality of life. However, each chronic condition in different body systems compete with each other for attention and care, which makes deciding the best care plan difficult for healthcare providers.
A new approach called complex multimorbidity provides a better measure of disease burden by categorizing diseases by the body system they affect rather than looking at diseases individually. This method is helpful to coordinate care between multiple healthcare providers treating a patient with multiple chronic diseases. The treatment plan often includes instructing lifestyle changes such as limiting tobacco use, identifying alcohol/drug misuse, addressing poor nutrition, and increasing physical activity and sleep duration. Extensive research has shown that poor sleep health, such as insomnia, sleep-disordered breathing, and short sleep durations, can cause chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Up until this point, most of the research has involved a patient population that is a majority White and therefore not inclusive of specific communities of color.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study conducted to examine the association between sleep measures and complex multimorbidities and the first to analyze this association among Asian Americans”
– Brittany Morey, PhD
The lack of quantifiable data on how sleep impacts Asian American communities is worrisome to clinicians and researchers because emerging preliminary research is suggesting that Asian Americans have shorter sleep duration than White Americans, resulting in poorer health outcomes.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study conducted to examine the association between sleep measures and complex multimorbidities and the first to analyze this association among Asian Americans,” said co-author Brittany Morey, PhD, assistant professor of health, society, and behavior at UCI’s Program in Public Health.
Using sleep measures survey data from roughly 400 Chinese and Korean Americans, the researchers analyzed variables like sleep disturbance and sleep apnea and found a significant association with having complex multimorbidity. Individuals who had sleep disturbance were more than twice likely to have complex multimorbidity, defined as having three or more body stem disorders. On the other hand, the association between sleep apnea and complex multimorbidity did not produce a statistically significant finding. Moreover, their analysis suggested that the association between sleep disturbance and complex multimorbidity might be more pronounced among males compared to females, among Korean Americans compared to Chinese Americans, and those who have lived in the U.S. shorter than those who lived in the U.S. longer.
With our research findings, we intend to increase awareness of the importance of sleep in healthcare providers’ treatment plan and to educate the public about causes, signs, and treatment of sleep disturbance and sleep apnea”
– Sunmin Lee, ScD
“With our research findings, we intend to increase awareness of the importance of sleep in healthcare providers’ treatment plan and to educate the public about causes, signs, and treatment of sleep disturbance and sleep apnea,” said senior author Sunmin Lee, ScD, a professor of medicine at the UCI School of Medicine. “We need to wake up to how important sleep is to our health and well-being.”
Corresponding author Soomin Ryu, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, conducted the research while under Lee’s mentorship. Lee is also an affiliated faculty member with the UCI Program in Public Health. Additional authors include Grace Lee, MD, Ichiro Kawachi, PhD and Susan Redline, MD.
This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health awarded to the University of California, Irvine.
