The relationship between sleep duration and health status in Qatar’s population

Abstract Background: Knowledge of correlates of sleep duration is limited to developed countries with dearth of studies conducted in countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). Qatar is a rapidly developing country in the EMR with three distinct population groups Qatari nationals (QNs) or natives; higher income white-collar expatriates (WCEs), and blue-collar workers (BCEs) who are mostly male laborers from South Asia. The. The aim of this study was to explore the association between sleep duration and chronic health conditions in a representative sample of Qatar’s general population. Methods: A total of 2,523 surveys were completed over the phone by trained interviewers; a final sample of 2,499 was retained. Descriptive and multinomial logistic regression analyses accounting for complex survey design were conducted in STATA 14. All regression models were adjusted for age, gender and social group using an alpha value of 0.05 for statistical significance. Results: The overall prevalence of sleeping 8hrs in the general population of Qatar. Participants who reported the poorest health status had increased odds of sleeping < 7hrs (OR 1.38, P=0.04) compared with those who reported good health after adjustment for covariates. Additionally, participants with two or more diagnosed illnesses had higher odds of sleeping < 7hrs (OR 1.58, P=0.02) compared to healthy participants. An increase in odds of sleeping < 7hrs was also observed in participants with obesity (OR 1.58, P=0.02). Conclusion: Qatar’s population exhibited high prevalence of short sleep duration, which was significantly associated with poor rated health, obesity, and chronic illness independent of age, gender, or social class.