Moderating effects of PER3 gene DNA methylation on the association between problematic mobile phone use and chronotype among Chinese young adults: Focus on gender differences.

Objective: To investigate the rates of problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) and chronotypes in young adults, and examine the associations of PMPU with chronotypes, as well as its gender differences. Furthermore, we explored the moderating role of PER3 gene DNA methylation on the associations.

Methods: From April to May 2019, a total of 1,179 young adults were selected from 2 universities in Anhui and Jiangxi provinces. The Self-rating Questionnaire for Adolescent Problematic Mobile Phone Use (SQAPMPU) and reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ) were adopted to investigate PMPU and chronotypes in young adults, respectively. Moreover, 744 blood samples were collected to measure PER3 gene DNA methylation. Multivariate logistic regression models were established to analyze the associations between PMPU and chronotypes. Moderating analysis was used to determine whether PER3 gene DNA methylation moderated the relationships between PMPU and chronotypes.

Results: The prevalence of PMPU, morning chronotypes (M-types), neutral chronotypes (N-types), and evening chronotypes (E-types) of young adults were 24.6%, 18.4%, 71.1%, and 10.5%, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression results indicated that PMPU was positively correlated with E-types (OR = 3.53, 95%CI: 2.08-6.00), and the association was observed only in females after stratified by gender (OR = 5.36, 95%CI: 2.70-10.67). Furthermore, PER3 gene DNA methylation has a negative moderating role between PMPU and chronotypes and has a sex-based difference.

Conclusions: This study can provide valuable information for the prevention and control of circadian rhythm disturbance among young adults from the perspective of epidemiology and biological etiology.