Sleep quality, sedentary behavior and cardiovascular risk in young adults

Abstract

Sleep is an essential process for maintaining the body's essential biological functions, and disorders associated with it can cause various health problems, including cardiovascular disorders. The practice of physical activity comprises one of the most beneficial habits for a correct sleep regulation, improving its duration and depth. However, the cycle that involves the practice of physical activities, quality of sleep and cardiovascular diseases needs further elucidation, therefore, the objective of this work was to compare and correlate the quality of sleep with the risk of developing Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS), and the practice of physical activities, as well as cardiovascular diseases. For this, we carried out a cross-sectional, observational, prospective, epidemiological study, in which volunteers of both sexes, aged between 20 and 50 years, were evaluated regarding anthropometry, questioned using questionnaires on cardiovascular risk, sleep quality (Pittsburgh), presence of OSAS (Berlin) and physical activity practice (IPAQ) and had their lipid profiles evaluated. Comparisons and correlations between variables were established by different statistical analyzes (using p values ≤0.05). Volunteers with poor sleep quality had a higher BMI value, sum of four folds and body fat, less time of vigorous physical activity and lower HDL value, as well as a positive correlation with systolic blood pressure, waist-to-height ratio and risk of developing of SAOS. Volunteers at high risk of developing OSAS had higher values for SBP, DBP, BMI, waist/height ratio, sum of four folds and less time of vigorous physical activity, in addition to a positive correlation with poor sleep quality, total cholesterol and LDL. Thus, we conclude that volunteers classified as having poor sleep quality and high risk for OSAS practice physical activities less frequently and with reduced load, in addition to presenting higher values in the variables of the cardiac, anthropometric and lipid profiles, indicating a greater cardiovascular risk.