A new study published in Ethnicity & Disease revealed that Latino men are more likely to suffer from restless sleep and other chronic disorders than the population at large, further establishing that these health issues occur more often among racial minorities.
“Since the racial differences in many diseases mirror the racial differences we see in sleep, we checked to see if sleep causes differences in these diseases,” said lead author Rebecca S. Piccolo, Associate Director for Health Services and Disparities Research at the New England Research Institutes.
Five years have passed since the first study was conducted between 2002 and 2005. The recent study found that men and women between ages 30 to 79 who reported experiencing restless sleep during the first interview were 66% more likely to be obese after 5 years and 50% more likely to have developed Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The study suggested that along with men living in poverty, Latino men suffered more restless nights and on average got less than five hours of sleep.
According to Timothy Monk, Director of the Human Chronobiology Research Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, the study is “a useful contribution to today’s important debate regarding metabolic health, obesity and sleep.” While the research shows that there are both sleep differences and health differences that occur with race, Monk explained that there are “effects over and above the sleep ones contributing to the health differences observed.”
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