Neighborhood Social Cohesion and Sleep Health by Age, Sex/Gender, and Race/Ethnicity in the United States

• Main Authors: Dana M. Alhasan, Symielle A. Gaston, W. Braxton Jackson, Patrice C. Williams, Ichiro Kawachi, Chandra L. Jackson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-12-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: residence characteristics; community support; social support; sleep; sleep initiation and maintenance disorders; African Americans
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9475
• ISSN: 1661-7827; 1660-4601

Although low neighborhood social cohesion (nSC) has been linked with poor sleep, studies of racially/ethnically diverse participants using multiple sleep dimensions remain sparse. Using National Health Interview Survey data, we examined overall, age, sex/gender, and racial/ethnic-specific associations between nSC and sleep health among 167,153 adults. Self-reported nSC was categorized into low, medium, and high. Very short sleep duration was defined as <6 hours; short as <7 h, recommended as 7–9 h, and long as ≥9 h. Sleep disturbances were assessed based on trouble falling and staying asleep, waking up feeling unrested, and using sleep medication (all ≥3 days/times in the previous week). Adjusting for sociodemographics and other confounders, we used Poisson regression with robust variance to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for sleep dimensions by low and medium vs. high nSC. The mean age of the sample was 47 ± 0.1 years, 52% of those included were women, and 69% were Non-Hispanic (NH)-White. Low vs. high nSC was associated with a higher prevalence of very short sleep (PR = 1.29; (95% CI = 1.23–1.36)). After adjustment, low vs. high nSC was associated with very short sleep duration among NH-White (PR = 1.34 (95% CI = 1.26–1.43)) and NH-Black (PR = 1.14 (95% CI = 1.02–1.28)) adults. Low nSC was associated with shorter sleep duration and sleep disturbances.