Abstract 16810: Short Sleep Duration Increases Incidence of All Metabolic Syndrome Components and Mortality: A 16-Year Prospective Cohort Study in 496,123 Adults

IntroductionSleep disturbance has been associated with adverse cardiometabolic effects and death. Preexisting health status potentially influences these associations. The aim of this study is to determine the relationships between sleep duration and the incidence of individual component of metabolic syndrome, and to evaluate the impact of sleep duration on mortality in individuals with or without preexisting disease.MethodsThis prospective cohort consisted of 496,123 adults (men 47.7%) aged 20 years or older who participated in a standard medical screening programme in Taiwan from 1996. Sleep duration and relevant covariates (e.g. smoking and physical activity) were assessed by a self-report questionnaire. Preexisting disease was identified by self-report and/or by the baseline medical screening. The incidence of each metabolic syndrome component was followed up in 146,454 adults (men 47.3%) without preexisting disease, while vital status were followed up for all participants. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard ratios (HR) of each metabolic syndrome component and death were estimated for three categories of sleep time per day, i.e. short (less than 6 hours), average (6-8 hours) and long (more than 8 hours).ResultsCompared to average sleepers, short sleepers had a higher hazard for metabolic syndrome, 10% higher for central obesity (HR 1.10 [1.05-1.16]), 6% higher for impaired fasting glucose and diabetes (HR 1.06 [1.03-1.10]), 8% higher for hypertension (HR 1.08 [1.03-1.13]), 6% higher for hypercholesterolemia (HR 1.06 [1.01-1.11]), 15% higher for hypertriglyceridemia (HR 1.15 [1.09-1.21]). Short sleep also increased the risk of death in all subjects (HR 1.11 [1.06-1.16]) and subjects with (HR 1.09 [1.04-1.14]) or without preexisting disease (HR 1.18 [1.05-1.33]). Long sleep had no significant hazard for either metabolic syndrome or mortality in subjects without preexisting disease.ConclusionsTo our knowledge this is the largest population study investigating the influence of sleep duration on metabolic traits and mortality by the status of underlying disease. We found sleep duration less than six hours a day significantly increases the risk of metabolic syndrome and death.