Association of sleep duration and all-cause and cancer-specific mortality: results of 2004 national health interview survey (NHIS)

Purbasha Biswas; Tolulope V Adebile; Sarah Sejoro; Manyun Liu; Xinyan Zhang; Wei Tu; Lili Yu

doi:10.1007/s41105-024-00551-y

Association of sleep duration and all-cause and cancer-specific mortality: results of 2004 national health interview survey (NHIS)

Sleep Biol Rhythms. 2024 Sep 3;23(1):55-65. doi: 10.1007/s41105-024-00551-y. eCollection 2025 Jan.

Authors

Purbasha Biswas¹, Tolulope V Adebile¹, Sarah Sejoro¹, Manyun Liu², Xinyan Zhang³, Wei Tu⁴, Lili Yu¹

Affiliations

¹ Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia.
² Boehringer Ingelheim, Gainesville, Georgia.
³ School of Data Science and Analytics, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia.
⁴ College of Science and Mathematics, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia.

PMID: 39801935
PMCID: PMC11717743 (available on 2025-09-03)
DOI: 10.1007/s41105-024-00551-y

Abstract

Epidemiologic research has demonstrated a connection between the duration of sleep and the risk of overall mortality. This research investigates the correlation between sleep duration (SD) and the likelihood of all-cause and cancer-specific mortality among cancer patients, exploring the association between SD and mortality risk. The study used the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data from 2004, a U.S.-based survey linked to a mortality database up to December 31, 2019. A total of 26,976 participants based on cancer responses, including 2082 cancer patients and 24,894 non-cancer patients, were included in this study. Participants self-reported SD (categorized as ≤ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or ≥ 10 h/day) was used. The Cox proportional hazards model for mortality risk was performed with demographic adjustments. Mortality risk was higher in adults with and without cancer and extremes (insufficient or more than sufficient) of SD. A J-shaped association was found between SD and all-cause and cancer-specific mortality risk among cancer and non-cancer patients. Among the cancer patients, compared with the reference group (7 h/day), both shorter and longer SDs were associated with increased risk of all-cause and cancer-specific mortality (≤ 5 h/day, HR 1.48 CI [1.77, 1.88]; 8 h/day, HR 1.45 CI [1.23, 1.72]; 9 h/day, HR 1.53 CI [1.18,1.99], ≥ 10 h/day, HR 2.15 CI [1.66, 2.78]); except the SD 6 h/day, HR 1.14 CI [0.93, 1.40]. The analysis included 349,936 person-years of observation. This study suggests that sleeping too long and too short is associated with increased risk among patients with all-cause and cancer-specific mortality.

Keywords: Confidence interval; Hazard ratio; Mortality; Sleep duration.

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