Sleep Duration Associated With Increased Risk of Peripheral Artery Disease

Short sleep duration is associated with an increased risk of a person developing peripheral artery disease (PAD), according to a recent study.

With the understanding that sleep duration has an association with cardiovascular disease, a team of researchers sought to determine the effect of sleep on PAD. The researchers conducted observational and Mendelian randomized (MR) analyses to reach their conclusion on sleep duration and daytime napping with PAD risk.

The associations of sleep duration and daytime napping with incident PAD were analyzed using data from several studies. The researchers looked at data from the Swedish Infrastructure for Medical Population-based Life-course and Environmental Research (n = 53,416), the veterans affairs Million Veteran Program (n = 128,459), and the UK Biobank study (n = 452,028).

Upon observational analyses, the researchers found that the data demonstrated a U-shaped association between sleep duration and PAD risk. When looking at Swedish individuals, PAD risk was higher in those with short sleep (less than 5 hours) or long sleep (8 hours and more), compared to individuals with a sleep duration of 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night. Further, this analysis was supported by individuals in the Million Veteran Program and UK Biobank study.

Additionally, the researchers noted that observational analysis revealed positive associations between daytime napping with PAD.

“We detected a strong association between sleep duration and PAD across our case-control, cohort, and MR analyses,” the researchers concluded. “This triangulation of evidence provides strong support for a relationship between short sleep duration and increased risk of PAD.”

The researchers noted a few limitations in their study that should be considered when interpreting their findings. First, in their cohort studies, data on sleep were obtained from self-administered questionnaires completed by participants at the start of the follow-up period. Further, the cohort was made up of middle-aged and older individuals and was limited to individuals of European descent.

Reference:

Yuan S, Levin MG, Titova OE, et al. Sleep duration, daytime napping, and risk of peripheral artery disease: multinational cohort and Mendelian randomization studies. Eur Heart J. Published online March 16, 2023. doi:oead008/7068263