Associations between Sleep Characteristics and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Adolescents Living with Type 1 Diabetes

Nana Wu; Veronica K Jamnik; Michael S Koehle; Yanfei Guan; Yongfeng Li; Kai Kaufman; Darren E R Warburton

doi:10.3390/jcm11185295

Associations between Sleep Characteristics and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Adolescents Living with Type 1 Diabetes

J Clin Med. 2022 Sep 8;11(18):5295. doi: 10.3390/jcm11185295.

Authors

Nana Wu¹, Veronica K Jamnik², Michael S Koehle^{3

4}, Yanfei Guan¹, Yongfeng Li⁵, Kai Kaufman¹, Darren E R Warburton¹

Affiliations

¹ Physical Activity Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Unit, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
² School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada.
³ Division of Sports Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
⁴ School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Education, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
⁵ College of Sports and Health, Shandong Sport University, Jinan 250102, China.

Abstract

Adolescents living with type 1 diabetes (T1D) have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Sleep patterns have physiological and behavioral impacts on diabetes outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the associations between sleep patterns and CVD risk factors in adolescents living with T1D and their peers living without T1D. This cross-sectional study assessed CVD risk factors and sleep characteristics (and their associations) in adolescents, aged 12-18 years, living with T1D (n = 48) and their peers (n = 19) without T1D. Outcomes included blood pressure, lipid profiles, and sleep characteristics (accelerometry). Statistical differences between groups were determined with chi-square or independent samples t-tests. The associations between sleep characteristics and CVD risk factors were assessed with multivariate linear regression analyses. We found no significant differences between the two groups in terms of sleep duration, efficiency, sleep onset and offset, and frequency of awakenings, and there were associations between sleep efficiency and LDL-C (β = -0.045, p = 0.018, model R² = 0.230) and triglycerides (β = -0.027, p = 0.012, model R² = 0.222) after adjusting confounders (diabetes status, sex, age, pubertal stage) in all participants. In conclusion, adolescents with T1D and without T1D sleep less than the recommended eight hours per night. The associations between sleep efficiency and LDL-C and triglycerides are independent of sleep duration, regardless of sex, age, and pubertal stage.

Keywords: cardiovascular health; sleep; type 1 diabetes.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Kinesiology Graduate Student Research Grant (University of British Columbia), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (grant numbers NSERC RGPIN-2018-04613 and RGPIN-2020-06526), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant numbers CIHR IA5-156528, CIHR PJT-162105, and CIHR NEH-160647).