The association between sleep deprivation and the risk of cardiovascular diseases: A systematic meta‑analysis.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Systematic review and meta-analysis of observational cohort studies
PubMed 37829258 · doi:10.3892/br.2023.1660
What was done
Authors conducted a systematic review and random-effects meta-analysis of cohort studies from PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase. Sleep deprivation was defined as ≤5 or ≤6 hours per day. Data on cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes were extracted by two reviewers to calculate pooled relative risks (RRs) or odds ratios (ORs), with subgroup analyses stratified by sex, age, and co-existing conditions.
What was found
Across 18 cohort studies, sleep deprivation was associated with an increased risk of CVDs (RR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.02–1.16, P=0.009). In stratified analyses, point estimates were similar but lost statistical significance in most subgroups: women (RR: 1.06, 95% CI: 0.96–1.17, P=0.27), men (RR: 1.07, 95% CI: 0.97–1.17, P=0.17), age ≥18 years (RR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.00–1.17, P=0.04), age ≥40 years (RR: 1.09, 95% CI: 0.98–1.22, P=0.11), and subjects with diabetes or hyperlipidemia (RR: 1.06, 95% CI: 0.94–1.20, P=0.32).
Why it matters
This review synthesizes longitudinal cohort data to quantify the association between short sleep duration and incident cardiovascular events across adult populations.
Limits
The total participant count is not provided in the abstract. All included studies are observational cohorts, precluding causal inference and leaving open the possibility of residual confounding. The observed effect size is small (9% increase) and confidence intervals crossed null in most subgroups. Sleep duration criteria combined differing thresholds (≤5 vs. ≤6 hours), and methods for assessing sleep duration are not described in the abstract.
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