Associations between nighttime sleep duration trajectories and risk of digestive diseases among middle-aged and older Chinese adults.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the relationship between nighttime sleep duration trajectories and the risk of digestive diseases among middle-aged and older adults in China.

Methods: A total of 9521 participants aged 45 years or older from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) were included in this longitudinal study. Nighttime sleep duration was analyzed using group-based trajectory model (GBTM) to identify distinct sleep duration trajectories. Binary logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between sleep duration trajectory groups and risks of digestive diseases and liver diseases. Data were analyzed using STATA and R.

Results: The average age of 9,521 participants was 58.3 ± 8.5 years, and 53% were female. Baseline analysis indicated a negative correlation between sleep duration and digestive diseases risk. Over the seven-year follow-up period, GBTM identified four distinct sleep duration trajectories: short-descent trajectory (n = 1728, 18.1%), short-stable trajectory (n = 3824, 40.2%), short-ascent trajectory (n = 1476, 15.5%) and normal-stable trajectory (n = 2493, 26.2%). Compared to the normal-stable trajectory, the short-descent trajectory was significantly associated with higher risk of incident digestive diseases (OR = 2.063; 95% CI 1.724, 2.466; P < 0.001) and liver diseases (OR = 1.622; 95% CI 1.256, 2.094; P < 0.001). In stratified analysis, the results were consistent.

Conclusion: A short sleep duration trajectory was associated with an increased risk of incident digestive diseases among middle-aged and older Chinese adults. These findings highlight the importance of considering dynamic sleep duration patterns in strategies for managing digestive diseases.