PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Unhealthy sleep linked to diabetes in a diverse population

Unhealthy sleep linked to diabetes in a diverse population
2024-07-18
(Press-News.org) Persistently unhealthy sleep, either not enough or too much, is associated with a significantly increased risk of Type 2 diabetes in a racially and economically diverse adult population, an international team of researchers has reported.

 

While previous research has linked suboptimal sleep durations to increased diabetes risk, the current report, published in the journal Diabetologia, extended these findings to a large cohort of primarily low-income, middle- to older-age Black and white adults in the southeastern United States.

 

“Our study contributes new information to support the importance of sleep health in midlife, particularly maintaining regular sleep schedules over time, to reduce the risk of adverse cardiometabolic conditions,” said Kelsie Full, PhD, MPH, a behavioral epidemiologist and assistant professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

 

Full and VUMC colleague Loren Lipworth, ScD, professor of Medicine in the Division of Epidemiology, co-authored the paper with first author Qian Xiao, PhD, MPH, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and Martin Rutter, MD, professor of cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom.

 

Suboptimal sleep duration is defined as sleeping fewer than seven hours or more than nine hours a night.

 

Previous studies have found that Black adults are more likely than their white counterparts to experience long-term, unhealthy sleep patterns, as well as a disproportionately high burden of diabetes. Low-income people also are more likely to sleep poorly and develop diabetes.

 

The current study was based on questionnaires completed by approximately 36,000 adult participants in the Southern Community Cohort Study, which follows the health of a racially and economically diverse group of people in 12 southeastern states. Most members of the cohort were recruited through community health centers.

 

Unlike prior studies, which were conducted in predominantly white or exclusively Chinese populations with sleep assessment at a single point in time, approximately 62% of participants in the current study were Black, and their sleep durations were reported in two separate surveys administered an average of five years apart.

 

“One of the main strengths of our study was that we focused on long-term sleep pattern rather than one-time measurement,” noted Xiao, associate professor of epidemiology, human genetics, and environmental sciences at the UT Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health.

“Moreover, we conducted the study in a large cohort of predominantly low-income and Black populations, which have been traditionally understudied in health research,” she said. “By focusing on longitudinal sleep patterns, we demonstrated the importance of maintaining a healthy sleep pattern over time for metabolic health.”

 

The strongest association with diabetes was found among participants reporting more extreme changes and higher variability in their sleep durations. Highly variable periods of sleep have been linked in other studies to poorer control of blood glucose levels, as well as to obesity and diabetes.

 

The current findings “suggest that a highly variable sleep duration in disadvantaged populations may be an important contributing factor to racial and socioeconomic disparities in cardiometabolic health,” the researchers concluded.

 

While an abnormally long sleep duration may not directly cause diabetes, it may reflect the presence of other diabetes risk factors, including diabetes-related fatigue. As such, “long sleep is still an important behavioral predictor of diabetes risk that may be used for risk prediction and disease screening,” they added.

 

The authors recommended further investigation to identify social and environmental factors, such as living in stressful, disadvantaged neighborhoods, which can disrupt normal, healthy sleep, and how sleep disruption may contribute to racial and socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes.

 

“Intervention studies are also needed to evaluate whether improving sleep health may reduce health disparities in the USA,” they wrote.

 

The study was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants R21HL165369 and R01AG063946, and by the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre. The Southern Community Cohort Study is supported by the National Cancer Institute of the NIH.

 

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Unhealthy sleep linked to diabetes in a diverse population Unhealthy sleep linked to diabetes in a diverse population 2

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Ochsner Health named among America’s Greatest Workplaces by Newsweek

2024-07-18
NEW ORLEANS, La. –  For the second consecutive year, Ochsner Health, the leading nonprofit healthcare provider in the Gulf South, has been named one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for 2024 by Newsweek and Plant-A Insights Group. Ochsner’s inclusion on this year’s list highlights the health system’s dedication to delivering excellence in inclusivity, employee empowerment and innovative culture. Newsweek and Plant-A Insights Group recognize the America’s Greatest Workplaces in the United States by conducting a large-scale employer ...

Is climate change keeping patients from vital doctor appointments?

2024-07-18
Temperature extremes, becoming increasingly frequent due to growing global climate change, are associated with higher rates of missed primary care appointments, according to a recently published study from Drexel University researchers in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The researchers found that rates of missed appointments increased by 0.72% for every 1°F decrease in daily maximum temperatures below 39°F and increased by 0.64% for every 1°F increase above 89°F. Patients 65 and older and those with ...

How pollution may remain in water after oil spill cleanups 

2024-07-18
Oil drops from underwater oil spills can break into tinier droplets at the surface that remain suspended in the water, according to research from the University of Illinois Chicago. That means cleanups after disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill may be removing less oil from the environment than was thought. Because oil is lighter than water, it rises through the ocean after spills, which are usually caused by leaking underwater pipelines or sometimes by natural processes. It was believed that when these ...

World’s first method: Successful surgery for a rare congenital heart disease “scimitar syndrome”

World’s first method: Successful surgery for a rare congenital heart disease “scimitar syndrome”
2024-07-18
Scimitar syndrome, a rare congenital heart disease, involves an anomalous pulmonary venous return where the right pulmonary veins return to the inferior vena cava instead of the left atrium. It is mainly diagnosed in infants, with an estimated prevalence of 1–3 per 100,000 births. Delayed treatment can lead to pulmonary hypertension, right heart failure, respiratory failure, heart arrhythmia, and growth disorders. This syndrome is characterized by anomalous pulmonary venous drainage to the inferior vena cava, and the usual surgical repair involves re-implanting the right pulmonary veins (scimitar vein) to the left atrium or creating an intra-atrial tunnel to ...

Major computing society endorses efforts to make digital accessibility part of the Americans with Disabilities Act

Major computing society endorses efforts to make digital accessibility part of the Americans with Disabilities Act
2024-07-18
The Association for Computing Machinery’s US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) has released a Statement in Support of Mandatory Comprehensive Digital Accessibility Regulations. The US Department of Justice recently updated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability, with requirements for the accessibility of web content and mobile applications. The aim of the revision to the ADA is to ensure that services, programs and activities provided by state and local governments online ...

When you eat may impact your overall health, nutrition experts say

2024-07-18
Philadelphia, July 18, 2024 – Accumulating evidence on the effect of the time of eating in relation to our circadian rhythm and metabolism shows that when we eat may influence our overall health and well-being. A special issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (JAND) on chrononutrition, published by Elsevier, examines the effects of various fasting regimens and covers safety considerations and practical guidance. The field of chrononutrition is gaining traction as it explores the relationship between temporal eating patterns, circadian rhythms, and metabolism for optimal health. Guest Editor Krista Varady, PhD, Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, ...

Researcher receives NASA funding to study ozone pollution

Researcher receives NASA funding to study ozone pollution
2024-07-18
NORMAN, OKLA. – University of Oklahoma professor Chenghao Wang has received three years of funding through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Early Career Investigator Program in Earth Science. Wang, an assistant professor in both the OU School of Meteorology and the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, will study compound heat and ozone pollution episodes in urban environments. Heat waves and air pollution are two increasingly occurring challenges that disproportionately impact urban areas. When multiple stressor events happen simultaneously, these compound events can have more significant impacts than isolated events. ...

New ECDC Director Pamela Rendi-Wagner emphasises importance of restoring and reinforcing public trust in science after pandemic, in editorial for Eurosurveillance

New ECDC Director Pamela Rendi-Wagner emphasises importance of restoring and reinforcing public trust in science after pandemic, in editorial for Eurosurveillance
2024-07-18
In an editorial for the scientific journal Eurosurveillance, the incoming ECDC Director Dr Pamela Rendi Wagner outlined her vision for the European Union’s public health agency, highlighting the mounting challenges to public health after the COVID-19 pandemic, including war in Europe, climate change, and increasing social inequalities. She also emphasised the importance of reinforcing and restoring public trust in science. Current challenges in public health  “War, flooding and the effects of ...

In China, property rights take wrong turn

2024-07-18
In China, Property Rights Take Wrong Turn Protecting them fueled an economic boom; eroding them risks long-term damage AUSTIN, Texas — China’s economy, long an engine of world growth, has been sputtering lately. During the second quarter of 2024, it grew at an annual rate of 4.7% — down from an average 7% a year during the past decade. For the next two years, the International Monetary Fund forecasts more of the same. Analysts have blamed China’s slowdown on short-term factors, such as debt-ridden real estate and a delayed recovery from the COVID-19 ...

Solar farms with stormwater controls mitigate runoff, erosion, study finds

Solar farms with stormwater controls mitigate runoff, erosion, study finds
2024-07-18
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As the number of major utility-scale ground solar panel installations grows, concerns about their impacts on natural hydrologic processes also have grown. However, a new study by Penn State researchers suggests that excess runoff or increased erosion can be easily mitigated — if these “solar farms” are properly built. Solar panels are impervious to water, and vast arrays of them, it was feared, could increase the volume and velocity of stormwater runoff similar ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Study finds COVID-19 mRNA vaccine sparks immune response to fight cancer

ESMO 2025: mRNA-based COVID vaccines generate improved responses to immunotherapy

Drug combo cuts risk of death in advanced prostate cancer by 40%

ADC improves outcomes for patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer who are ineligible for immune checkpoint inhibitors

Novel treatment combination improves progression-free survival in metastatic, estrogen-receptor-positive HER-2-negative breast cancer

ESMO 2025: Trial results show belzutifan shrinks rare neuroendocrine tumors and improves symptoms in patients

ESMO 2025: Dual targeted therapy shows promise in previously treated advanced kidney cancer patients

New generation of Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) shows unprecedented promise in early-stage disease

Sylvester Cancer Tip Sheet for October 2025

Three science and technology leaders elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Jump Trading CSO Kevin Bowers elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Former Inscripta CEO Sri Kosaraju elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Citadel’s Jordan Chetty elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

McGill research flags Montreal snow dump, inactive landfills as major methane polluters

A lightweight and rapid bidirectional search algorithm

Eighty-five years of big tree history available in one place for the first time

MIT invents human brain model with six major cell types to enable personalized disease research, drug discovery

Health and economic air quality co-benefits of stringent climate policies

How immune cells deliver their deadly cargo

How the brain becomes a better listener: How focus enhances sound processing

Processed fats found in margarines unlikely to affect heart health

Scientists discover how leukemia cells evade treatment

Sandra Shi MD, MPH, named 2025 STAT Wunderkind

Treating liver disease with microscopic nanoparticles

Chemicals might be hitching a ride on nanoplastics to enter your skin

Pregnant patients with preexisting high cholesterol may have elevated CV risk

UC stroke experts discuss current and future use of AI tools in research and treatment

The Southern Ocean’s low-salinity water locked away CO2 for decades, but...

OHSU researchers develop functional eggs from human skin cells

Most users cannot identify AI bias, even in training data

[Press-News.org] Unhealthy sleep linked to diabetes in a diverse population