Abstract
Aims: To establish the relationship between household composition and sleep, we: 1) used latent class analysis (LCA) to classify households; 2) examined the reliability and stability of household composition classes over time; 3) conducted multinomial logistic regression analyses to determine the relationship between household class and the self-reported sleep duration and quality of adults. Methods: Data were sourced from Waves 1 and 2 of the United Kingdom “Understanding Society” (USoc) longitudinal panel survey. LCA was used to classify household composition as a categorical latent construct using data on the number and ages of household occupants and the number of rooms used for sleeping. The Bayesian Information Criterion assessed model fit and identified the optimum number of latent classes. Multi-nomial logistic regression was used to investigate cross-sectional relationships between the household classes and self-reported sleep duration and quality amongst adults, after adjustment for confounders. Results: Household composition was best defined by 7 latent classes in data from Wave 1 of USoc. This finding was confirmed in Wave 2. Compared to the reference class (households with no children and no overcrowding), there was a higher risk of short sleep (≤5 hours) versus 7-8 hours sleep for latent household composition classes that included children (RR: 1.56; 95% CI: 1.29-1.89) and for those with both children and overcrowding (RR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.31-1.88). Similarly the risk of “very bad” versus “fairly good” quality sleep was significantly higher in those household classes with overcrowding, particularly those with extended (RR: 1.75; 95% CI: 1.34-2.29) and large (RR: 1.51; 95% CI: 1.21-1.87) households. Conclusion: These analyses of a recent, nationally representative cohort from the UK, demonstrated that latent household composition classes are reliable over time; and that these latent household composition classes are important correlates of self-reported sleep amongst adult occupants. We showed that household composition is an important contextual variable to consider in most epidemiological studies of sleep.
Highlights
What is already known: Previous research has indicated that the number [1] and ages [2] of children in a household are associated with sleep duration amongst adult occupants
Compared to the reference class, there was a higher risk of short sleep (≤5 hours) versus 7 - 8 hours sleep for latent household composition classes that included children (RR: 1.56; 95% CI: 1.29 - 1.89) and for those with both children and overcrowding (RR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.31 1.88)
To establish which of the covariates might operate as potential confounders, mediators or competing exposures in the multinomial logistic regression analyses exploring the relationship between latent household composition class and sleep duration/quality, a causal path diagram was constructed in the form of a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), drawing on established and hypothesised functional relationships between the exposure variable, the outcome variable and each covariate [7]
Summary
What is already known: Previous research has indicated that the number [1] and ages [2] of children in a household are associated with sleep duration amongst adult occupants. Their study, and that by Groeger et al [3], suggested that factors such as partnership status and parental status have a significant association with sleep duration such that childless adults, for example, tend to have longer sleep durations compared than adults living with children Neither of these studies (and none that we have been able to find) used LCA to consider overcrowding in the home as a potential predictor of sleep alongside the sociodemographic distribution of household occupants. Overcrowding is likely to have a substantial impact on sleep, and on the impact that partnership status, parental status and the number/ages of children in the household have on sleep To address this issue, the present study used data from Understanding Society (USoc), the United Kingdom’s nationally representative household panel survey, to: define household composition in terms of latent household classes; and examine the relationship between household composition and self-reported sleep duration and quality. The study aimed to extend our understanding of the household characteristics that are associated with sleep and thereby inform future epidemiological research, including the potential development of sleep interventions that are sensitive to variation in household composition
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
