Sleep Duration and Chronic Disease Among Older Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders and Asians: Analysis of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

Objectives Older adults are particularly vulnerable to unhealthy sleep. This study examines the relationship between sleep duration and chronic diseases among older Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders (NHOPIs) and identifies variations with older Asians. Methods In this cross-sectional study, data were analyzed using the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The total sample of adults 50 years and older included 1277 NHOPIs and 4655 Asians. Weighted, survey logistic regressions were employed to analyze the relationship between sleep duration (i.e., short, healthy, and long) and seven chronic diseases: coronary heart disease, stroke, heart attack/myocardial infarction, pre-diabetes, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and depressive disorder. Sleep duration was categorized into short sleep (SS; ≤ 6 h), healthy sleep (7–8 h), and long sleep (LS; ≥ 9 h), with healthy sleep as the reference group. Results Among NHOPIs, SS and LS were significantly related to stroke ( OR 3.19, 95% CI : 1.35–7.53 for SS and OR 9.52, 95% CI : 2.99–30.34 for LS) and SS was associated with pre-diabetes ( OR 2.22 CI : 1.07–4.59), after adjusting for all covariates. In contrast, Asians with SS and LS reported higher odds of depression ( OR 2.40, 95% CI : 1.20–4.79 and OR 5.03, 95% CI : 1.57–16.13, respectively). Conclusions Findings suggest older NHOPIs with SS or LS experience worse health. NHOPIs and Asians varied on the relationship between sleep and chronic disease, underscoring the need to disaggregate Asian/NHOPI data to understand health disparities.