(HealthDay News) — Poor sleep is associated with increased risks of all-cause and cause-specific mortality, with risk exacerbated among those with insufficient physical activity, according to a study published online June 29 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Bo-Huei Huang, a researcher and Ph.D. student at the University of Sydney, and colleagues examined the joint association of physical activity and sleep with all-cause and cause-specific mortality risks among 380,055 participants with a mean age of 55.9 years from the U.K. Biobank. Based on current public health guidelines, baseline physical activity levels were classified as high, medium, low, and no moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Sleep was classified into healthy, intermediate and poor. Twelve physical activity-sleep combinations were derived, and the mortality risks were ascertained.
The researchers found that sleep scores showed dose-response associations with all-cause, total cardiovascular disease, and ischemic stroke mortality after an average follow-up of 11.1 years. Compared with the reference group (high physical activity/healthy sleep), the highest mortality risks were seen for the no moderate-to-vigorous physical activity/poor sleep group for all-cause, total cardiovascular disease, total cancer, and lung cancer (hazard ratios, 1.57, 1.67, 1.45, and 1.91, respectively). Lower physical activity amplified the deleterious associations of poor sleep with all outcomes, apart from stroke.
“Our results support the value of interventions to concurrently target [physical activity] and sleep to improve health,” the authors write. “Future prospective studies with device-based sleep and [physical activity] assessments and trials concurrently targeting both behaviors are warranted.”
