Associations Between Insufficient Sleep Syndrome and Health Outcomes for Care Partners

Abstract

<h3>Research Objectives</h3> To examine the rates of insufficient sleep among care partners (i.e., informal family caregivers), as well as the associations between insufficient sleep and health related quality of life (HRQOL). <h3>Design</h3> This is a secondary data analysis from a prospective randomized clinical trial. We examined baseline data on HRQOL and Fitbit®-based estimates of sleep hours. We used linear regression to determine the association between insufficient sleep and HRQOL. <h3>Setting</h3> Care partners were recruited through community groups, relevant organizations and existing databases at the University of Michigan. <h3>Participants</h3> Sixty-five care partners who provided some form of care for an adult (18 years or older) with Huntington disease (HD; n=19), spinal cord injury (SCI; n=18), or hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT; n=28). <h3>Interventions</h3> N/A. <h3>Main Outcome Measures</h3> Insufficient sleep syndrome was defined as averaging < 6 hours/night of sleep during the first two weeks of the study. HRQOL was examined using baseline Neuro-QoL measures of mental (anxiety, caregiver-specific anxiety, caregiver strain, anger, perceived stress, self-efficacy, positive affect and well-being), physical (sleep impairments) and social (participation with social roles and activities). <h3>Results</h3> The mean age was 55.2 years (SD=13.2); the majority of the care partners were female (69.0%) and white (91%). Thirty-six (55.4%) care partners had insufficient sleep syndrome. Care partners of SCI had the highest rates of insufficient sleep syndrome (67%), followed by care partners of HCT (57%) and those of HD (42%). Although there were no significant associations between insufficient sleep and HRQOL, there was a trend for participants with insufficient sleep to have worse social participation than those without (-3.41 [-7.61, 0.78]; p=0.10). <h3>Conclusions</h3> More than half of care partners had insufficient sleep syndrome. The findings suggest participants with insufficient sleep may have worse social participation than those without. Additional work in larger samples is warranted to better understand the effect (if any) that insufficient sleep has on HRQOL among care partners. <h3>Author(s) Disclosures</h3> The authors report no conflicts of interest for this study.