THURSDAY, June 12 (HealthDay News) -- In older men, disrupted rest/activity rhythms are associated with an increased risk of death, according to research presented this week at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, held in Baltimore.
Misti L. Paudel, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and colleagues assessed activity patterns during an average of 5.2 nights in 3,053 community-dwelling men aged 67 and older. They followed the men for an average of 5.9 years.
After adjusting for race, alcohol use, health status and other factors, the researchers found that mortality rates were higher in subjects who scored in the lowest quintiles of amplitude and F-value than in those in the highest quintiles (hazard ratios, 2.34 and 1.88, respectively.) They also observed that subjects in the highest and lowest quintiles of acrophase had higher mortality rates than those in the third quintile (HR, 1.85 and 1.91, respectively).
"Further research should examine potential biological mechanisms underlying this association," the authors conclude.
Abstract #0133
