Neurology · Public Health · 2 h ago
Sleep patterns and genetic risk linked to stroke in two cohorts
A prospective analysis of 11,574 CHARLS participants and 485,014 UK Biobank participants examined sleep measures and stroke risk. Restless sleep was associated with incident stroke in CHARLS, while poorer composite sleep scores and higher genetic risk were associated with ischemic stroke in the UK Biobank.
- Restless sleep was associated with stroke in CHARLS.
- Poorer sleep scores tracked with ischemic stroke in UK Biobank.
- High genetic risk and less healthy sleep jointly marked higher risk.
- Observational findings do not establish causality.
Researchers analyzed prospective data from two population-based cohorts: 11,574 participants in China’s CHARLS and 485,014 in the UK Biobank. In CHARLS, they assessed nighttime sleep duration, daytime napping and restless sleep in relation to incident stroke, with hypertension and heart disease examined as potential mediators. In the UK Biobank, a five-component sleep score covered sleep duration, chronotype, insomnia, snoring and daytime sleepiness; participants were also grouped by polygenic risk score. Cox models were used, with mediation analyses in CHARLS.
CHARLS recorded 707 incident strokes over up to approximately seven years. Restless sleep most or all of the time was associated with higher stroke risk than rare or no restless sleep (HR 1.22, 95% CI 1.00–1.48); sleep duration and napping were not significantly associated after adjustment. In the UK Biobank, 8,929 ischemic strokes occurred. Each one-point increase in sleep score was associated with higher risk (HR 1.07, 95% CI 1.05–1.09); poor versus healthy sleep was associated with an HR of 1.29 (95% CI 1.16–1.44). High genetic risk combined with moderate or poor sleep was associated with roughly twice the risk of low genetic risk plus healthy sleep.
These observational associations do not establish causation or show that changing sleep reduces stroke risk. Findings also differ in measures and outcomes across cohorts, limiting direct comparison; the authors frame the results as potentially useful for population-level prevention research.
In practice
These cohort findings associate restless sleep in CHARLS and poorer multidimensional sleep scores in the UK Biobank with higher stroke risk; genetic risk also stratified risk in the UK cohort. They may support further evaluation of sleep and inherited risk in population-level stroke prevention research, but they do not show that sleep interventions prevent stroke or establish that genetic testing should guide care. The observational design and differing measures and stroke outcomes across cohorts limit causal interpretation and direct comparison.
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BMC Public Health: Sleep health and stroke risk: complementary analyses of CHARLS and the UK Biobank, including genetic susceptibility in the UK Biobank ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.