Abstract 18892: Sleep Duration is Linked to Cholesterol Levels Among Hispanics: Findings From the National Health Interview Survey

Introduction: Short sleep duration is associated with unhealthy cholesterol levels, a significant cardiovascular risk marker. Precious epidemiological studies indicate that cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounts for 20% of deaths among Hispanics, and 75% have at least one risk factor associated with cardiovascular health. Little is known about whether sleep duration contributes directly to cholesterol levels among Hispanics.

Objectives: 1) Examine whether sleep duration predicts cholesterol levels; 2) Examine whether this relationship differs in Hispanics in comparison to non-Hispanics.

Methods: This study was based on the 2020 National Health Interview Survey. Cholesterol, the outcome, is defined as whether an individual had high cholesterol during the last 12 months. Sleep quantity was categorized as follows: short sleep (< 7 hours), healthy sleep (7-8 hours), and long sleep (≥9 hours). For stratified analyses, we investigated whether the relationship between sleep duration and cholesterol differed between Hispanics and non-Hispanics. We performed unadjusted and fully adjusted binary logistic regression analyses, with age, sex, education, income, and BMI as covariates.

Results: Among 37,558 participants, the mean age was 46.64 (SD=23.22 years; female= 53.2%); 9.5% of the sample was Hispanic and 90.5% was non- Hispanic. The inferential analysis was split into 3 groups: Full sample, Non-Hispanic only, and Hispanic only. Multivariate-adjusted regression analyses indicated that there’s a stronger association between short sleep and high cholesterol among the Hispanic only group (OR=1.50, p=.001) when compared to Non-Hispanic only (OR=1.15, p=<.001).

Conclusions: Short sleep duration (≤6 hours) predicted high cholesterol for all three groups. Hispanics who suffer from short sleep are more vulnerable to having high cholesterol. Long sleep (≥9 hours) did not predict high cholesterol in any of the groups. Further research should look at if these findings are relative to cholesterol or other CVD risk factors, as well as what is the contribution of sleep, vs. diet, vs. exercise in reference to high cholesterol.