Associations of sleep duration with patient-reported outcomes and healthcare use in U.S. adults with asthma.

Background Asthma contributes to significant morbidity and healthcare utilization in adults. Insufficient and excessive sleep duration have known adverse effects on health. Little is known about the impact of sleep duration on health outcomes in adults with asthma. Objective To examine associations between sleep duration, patient-reported outcomes, and healthcare use in adults with asthma from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Methods Cross-sectional data from the 2007-2012 NHANES survey were analyzed. Asthma was identified by self-report. Habitual hours of sleep duration were categorized as short (≤5), normal (6-8), and long (≥9). Multivariate regression analyses were used to examine the associations between sleep duration and patient-reported outcomes and healthcare use. Results Of the 1389 adults with asthma, 26% reported short sleep duration, 66% reported normal sleep duration, and 8% reported long sleep duration. Those with short sleep duration had increased asthma attacks (aOR 1.58, 95% CI 1.13-2.21), coughing (aOR 1.95, 95% CI 1.32-2.87), and overnight hospitalizations (aOR 2.14, 95% CI 1.373.36) compared with those with normal sleep duration. They also reported worse health-related quality of life including days of poor physical health, mental health, and inactivity due to poor health (p-values Conclusion Compared to adults with asthma and normal sleep duration, those with short sleep duration experience more frequent asthma attacks, increased healthcare use, and worse health-related quality of life, whereas those with long sleep duration experience more frequent activity limitation.