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ABSTRACT
Currently, the data for effect of sleep on falls-associated fractures in elderly individuals are still limited. This current study was aimed to assess the link between self-reported sleep characteristics and falls-associated fractures in elderly individuals. This study included a total of 20,497 participants from National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005–2008, and 6,174 participants aged 45 years and older were identified. Self-reported sleep characteristics and conditions of falls-associated fractures of individuals were obtained via the method of personal questionnaires. In a total of 610 participants with exact history of fractures, 168 individuals with falls-associated fractures were identified, and the prevalence was 27.5%. The mean age of falls-associated fractures group was (72.1 ± 8.8) years, and the female (P < 0.001) occupied a higher proportion. Factors of living alone (P = 0.003), combined with hypertension (P = 0.003) and osteoporosis (P < 0.001), sleeping less or more (P = 0.009), and frequent snoring (P = 0.007) were linked to falls-associated fractures. Compared with sleep duration of 6 to 8 h/night, sleep duration of ≤4 h/night (odds ratio [OR] 1.858, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.115–3.094) and of ≥9 h/night (OR 1.932, 95% CI 1.195–3.123) were related to an increased risk of falls-associated fractures. Collectively, our nationwide data noted that sleep characteristics were closely related to falls-associated fractures in elderly individuals, and a longer sleep duration may exhibit a protective effect against the falls-associated fractures, but it should be limited within 9 h/night.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the participants included in the NHANES.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Ethical approval
This study was conducted in accordance with the principles of Declaration of Helsinki. The NHANES database used in this study did not contain identifiable nor protected the health information and is publicly available for download. Moreover, this is an exempt study due to the fact that the current study only involved secondary data analysis of existing NHANES database, which is publicly available and have been de-identified, thus there is no need to apply an IRB approval from our own institution.