Racial/ethnic disparities in self-reported short sleep duration among US-born and foreign-born adults

ABSTRACT

Objective. Racial/ethnic health disparities are infrequently considered by nativity status in the United States, although the immigrant population has practically doubled since 1990. We investigated the modifying role of nativity status (US- vs. foreign-born) on racial/ethnic disparities in short sleep duration (<7 h), which has serious health consequences.

Design. Cross-sectional data from 23,505 US-born and 4,326 foreign-born adults aged ≥ 18 years from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey and multivariable log-linear regression were used to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) for reporting short sleep duration and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results. After controlling for sociodemographic covariates, short sleep was more prevalent among blacks (PR 1.29, 95% CI: 1.21-1.37), Hispanics (PR 1.18, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.29), and Asians (PR 1.37, 95% CI: 1.16-1.61) than whites among US-born adults. Short sleep was more prevalent among blacks (PR 1.71, 95% CI: 1.38, 2.13) and Asians (PR 1.23, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.47) than whites among the foreign-born.

Conclusion. Among both US- and foreign-born adults, blacks and Asians had a higher likelihood of short sleep compared to whites. US-born Hispanics, but not foreign-born Hispanics, had a higher likelihood than their white counterparts. Future research should aim to uncover mechanisms underlying these disparities.

KEYWORDS:

• Sleep
• nativity
• immigration
• race
• ethnicity
• stress

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Key messages

 (1) Compared to whites, blacks and Asians had a higher likelihood of short sleep among both US- and foreign-born adults.

 (2) US-born Hispanics, but not foreign-born Hispanics, had a higher likelihood of short sleep compared to their white counterparts.

 (3) In other words, racial/ethnic disparities in short sleep duration vary by nativity status.