Abstract P458: An Examination of the Influence of Daily Intersectional Minority Stressors on Sleep Health in Sexual and Gender Minority People of Color

Abstract

Background: Sexual and gender minority (SGM; e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) people of color are at higher risk for poor sleep health outcomes than both White SGM adults and non-SGM people of color. Growing evidence suggests that chronic minority stressors (i.e., unique stressors attributed to one or more of an individual’s minoritized identities) are associated with short sleep duration and worse sleep quality in SGM adults. However, no study has examined the associations of daily intersectional minority stressors (i.e., attributed to any reason, such as race, sexual identity, gender) with sleep health outcomes in SGM people of color. Objective: To determine the associations of intersectional minority stressors (i.e., anticipated and experienced discrimination) with subsequent sleep health outcomes (i.e., sleep duration, sleep disturbances, and sleep-related impairment) at the day level among SGM people of color. Methods: An online sample of SGM people of color living in the United States participated in a 30-day daily diary study. Daily anticipated discrimination (i.e., expectation of encountering discrimination) and personally experienced discrimination as well as daily subjective sleep health outcomes were assessed using morning and evening electronic diaries. Daily anticipated and experienced discrimination were assessed using validated measures. Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) 4-item measures were used to assess daily subjective sleep disturbances and sleep-related impairment. Continuous wrist-worn actigraphy was used to objectively assess sleep duration. Multilevel linear models (MLMs) were used to estimate the independent associations of daily intersectional minority stressors with subsequent sleep health outcomes, adjusted for demographic factors and chronic minority stressors. Results: The sample included 43 SGM people of color with a mean age of 27.0 years (+/- 7.7) of which 84% were Latinx, 47% were multi-racial, and 37% were bisexual. Results of MLMs indicated that greater report of daily experienced discrimination was positively associated with same-night sleep disturbances ( B[SE] = 0.33[0.12], p = 0.01). Further, daily anticipated discrimination was positively associated with sleep-related impairment on the following day ( B[SE] = 0.39[0.17], p = 0.02). However, daily anticipated and experienced discrimination were not associated with same-night sleep duration. Conclusions: This is the first study to simultaneously examine the influence of daily anticipated and experienced discrimination on sleep health in any population. Further research is needed to identify factors driving the link between daily intersectional minority stressors and subjective sleep health outcomes in SGM people of color. This work is crucial to inform precision sleep health interventions tailored for this population.