Sleep disturbances associated with heart disease in older Mexican adults

Researchers analyzed data from the 2018 wave of the Mexican Health and Aging Study, including 12,709 adults aged 50 years or older. Of these, 1,585 reported heart disease. The cross-sectional study used multivariable logistic regression to assess associations between four sleep disturbance indicators and heart disease; exploratory analyses examined depressive symptoms, fatigue and machine-learning classification.

Waking up at night most of the time was associated with higher odds of heart disease than never waking at night (adjusted OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.41–2.03); waking at night sometimes was also associated (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.10–1.48). Frequent difficulty falling asleep was associated with higher odds (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.07–1.52), while feeling refreshed most of the time was associated with lower odds (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.69–0.94). Associations were less precise and no longer statistically significant in a respondent-weighted sensitivity analysis.

The cross-sectional design means the results cannot establish whether sleep disturbances precede heart disease or result from it. Random forest classification had limited internal performance (AUC 0.72) and was not clinically validated; the authors describe the path-analysis findings as exploratory rather than evidence of temporal mediation.