Racial/ethnic disparities in the trajectories of insomnia symptoms from childhood to young adulthood
- PMID: 38270531
- PMCID: PMC11082472
- DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsae021
Racial/ethnic disparities in the trajectories of insomnia symptoms from childhood to young adulthood
Abstract
Study objectives: To examine differences in the longitudinal prevalence of childhood insomnia symptoms across black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, and non-Hispanic white groups.
Methods: Participants were 519 children from the Penn State Child Cohort (baseline [V1] from 2000-2005) who were followed up 8 years later as adolescents (V2) and 15 years later as young adults (S3). Mean age at S3 was 24.1 ± 2.7 years. Approximately, 76.5% identified as non-Hispanic white, 12.9% as black/African American, 7.1% as Hispanic/Latinx, and 3.5% as "other" race/ethnicity. Insomnia symptoms were defined as parent-reported (childhood) or self-reported (adolescence and young adulthood) moderate-to-severe difficulties initiating/maintaining sleep. Longitudinal trajectories of insomnia symptoms were identified across three-time points and the odds of each trajectory were compared between racial/ethnic groups, adjusting for sex, age, overweight, sleep apnea, periodic limb movements, psychiatric/behavioral disorders, and psychotropic medication use.
Results: Black/African Americans compared to non-Hispanic whites were at significantly higher odds of having a childhood-onset persistent trajectory through young adulthood (OR = 2.58, 95% CI [1.29, 5.14]), while Hispanics/Latinx were at nonsignificantly higher odds to have the same trajectory (OR = 1.81, 95% CI [0.77, 4.25]). No significant racial/ethnic differences were observed for remitted and waxing-and-waning trajectories since childhood or incident/new-onset trajectories in young adulthood.
Conclusions: The results indicate that disparities in insomnia symptoms among black/African American and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic/Latinx groups start early in childhood and persist into young adulthood. Identifying and intervening upon upstream determinants of racial/ethnic insomnia disparities are warranted to directly address these disparities and to prevent their adverse health sequelae.
Clinical trial information: N/A; Not a clinical trial.
Keywords: cohort study; health disparity populations; insomnia; longitudinal study; sleep.
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Comment in
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When shall we intervene to prevent insomnia development among minoritized youth?: the earlier, the better.Sleep. 2024 May 10;47(5):zsae054. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsae054. Sleep. 2024. PMID: 38416576 No abstract available.
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