Minorities have more sleep disturbances

PHOENIX, April 16 (UPI) -- Blacks and Hispanics experience more sleep disturbances than whites, affecting their quality of life, U.S. researchers found.

Lead author Carol M. Baldwin of Southwest Borderlands Scholar -- director of the Center for World Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University in Phoenix -- said researchers analyzed data involving 5,237 from the Sleep Heart Health Study, a multicenter study from seven U.S. regions. Eighty-six percent were Caucasian, 9 percent African-American and 5 percent Hispanic all age 40 and older.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, found 46 percent had mild sleep apnea, 34 percent frequent snoring, 30 percent insomnia symptoms and 25 percent excessive daytime sleepiness.

Forty-one percent of Hispanics reported snoring and 32 percent of African-Americans reported excessive daytime sleepiness, while there were no statistically significant differences involving obstructive sleep apnea or insomnia symptoms by race.

"These findings support the need for sleep clinicians to use culturally-responsive sleep education, assessment and intervention approaches, as well as depression, anxiety and other relevant mood and socioeconomic-status," Baldwin said in a statement.

Baldwin warned the study is correlational and did not allow for an analysis of causality.