Association of sleep problems with self-rated health - A large epidemiologic survey in the working population

Abstract

To investigate the association between various sleep problems and self-rated health (SRH), a total of 43,092 (34,164 men and 8,928 women) employees were surveyed by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The risk of suboptimal (poor, very poor) SRH associated with sleep problems was estimated using multivariable logistic regression with odds ratios (ORs) as measures of associations. Because the prevalence of suboptimal SRH differed by sex (men 29.4% and women 34.1%, P < 0.001), the analyses were done separately for men and women. Employees sleeping less than 6 hrs/day (OR = 1.39 for men, 1.40 for women), with difficulty initiating sleep (OR=4.44 for men, 3.85 for women), with difficulty maintaining sleep (OR=5.72 for men, 4.85 for women), with early morning awakening (OR=3.87 for men, 4.25 for women), with difficulty waking up in the morning (OR=3.30 for men, 3.40 for women), feeling tired when waking up in the morning (OR=4.97 for men, 4.82 for women), and excessive daytime sleepiness at work (OR=2.34 for men, 2.11 for women) had a significantly higher odds of suboptimal SRH compared to those without sleep problems. The association between sleep problems and suboptimal SRH did not differ between men and women. In conclusion, the data point to an independent relationship between sleep problems and suboptimal SRH among Japanese employees.