Persistent insomnia is associated with mortality risk - PubMed (original) (raw)

Persistent insomnia is associated with mortality risk

Sairam Parthasarathy et al. Am J Med. 2015 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Insomnia has been associated with mortality risk, but whether this association is different in subjects with persistent vs intermittent insomnia is unclear. Additionally, the role of systemic inflammation in such an association is unknown.

Methods: We used data from a community-based cohort to determine whether persistent or intermittent insomnia, defined based on persistence of symptoms over a 6-year period, was associated with death during the following 20 years of follow-up. We also determined whether changes in serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels measured over 2 decades between study initiation and insomnia determination were different for the persistent, intermittent, and never insomnia groups. The results were adjusted for confounders such as age, sex, body mass index, smoking, physical activity, alcohol, and sedatives.

Results: Of the 1409 adult participants, 249 (18%) had intermittent and 128 (9%) had persistent insomnia. During a 20-year follow-up period, 318 participants died (118 due to cardiopulmonary disease). In adjusted Cox proportional-hazards models, participants with persistent insomnia (adjusted hazards ratio [HR] 1.58; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-2.45) but not intermittent insomnia (HR 1.22; 95% CI, 0.86-1.74) were more likely to die than participants without insomnia. Serum CRP levels were higher and increased at a steeper rate in subjects with persistent insomnia as compared with intermittent (P = .04) or never (P = .004) insomnia. Although CRP levels were themselves associated with increased mortality (adjusted HR 1.36; 95% CI, 1.01-1.82; P = .04), adjustment for CRP levels did not notably change the association between persistent insomnia and mortality.

Conclusions: In a population-based cohort, persistent, and not intermittent, insomnia was associated with increased risk for all-cause and cardiopulmonary mortality and was associated with a steeper increase in inflammation.

Keywords: Cardiovascular; Chronic insomnia; Mortality; Sleep.

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Kaplan-Meier curves across the longitudinal categories of insomnia. Insomnia was defined by ICSD criteria and participants categorized into three groups: never insomnia (green), intermittent insomnia (blue), or persistent insomnia (red).

Figure 2

Figure 2

C-reactive protein (CRP) levels across longitudinal insomnia categories (never insomnia, intermittent insomnia, and persistent insomnia) for both the baseline (1972-73, closed circles) and the 1990-92 (open circles) survey. Plotted CRP values are geometric means and standard errors.

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