Daily social rhythms, sleep affect abdominal adiposity after job loss
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The frequency and consistency of social rhythms and sleep play an important role in waist circumference change after job loss, according to study data published in Obesity.
“After stressful life events, like job loss, individuals may benefit from social rhythm intervention,” Patricia L. Haynes, PhD, DBSM, from the department of health promotion sciences at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona, Tucson, told Healio. “Social rhythm interventions teach individuals to develop and sustain new, active daily routines.”
Haynes and colleagues enrolled 191 participants (60.7% women) who applied for unemployment insurance in Tucson, Arizona, between October 2015 and December 2018 in the 18-month longitudinal, observational ADAPT study. All participants completed six visits that included standardized waist circumference measurements. They completed daily sleep diaries and wore an actigraph on their nondominant wrist daily for 2 weeks. They also completed the social rhythm metric each evening, noting the time they completed 17 routine activities, which was used determine the regularity and volume of activities. Higher scores indicated more and more regular activity.
A 1-point increase in the social rhythm metric was associated with a monthly decrease of 0.22 cm in waist circumference immediately after job loss. However, this rate of decrease slowed over time. Participants with lower social rhythm metric scores experienced less waist circumference change immediately after job loss and over time and greater waist circumference increase compared with participants with higher social rhythm metric scores.
Researchers observed a decrease in waist circumference among individuals with more consistent social rhythms (P = .01), more activities in their social rhythms (P = .01) and higher sleep quality (P = .06) after job loss after controlling for obesity and other covariates.
There was no change in waist circumference trajectories among individuals with lower social rhythms, less activities in their social rhythms and lower sleep quality.
“Findings from this study demonstrate that the frequency and regularity of daily routine activities, activities beyond meals and exercise that are hypothesized to anchor a daily circadian rhythm, are key factors in long-term health for individuals exposed to recent job loss,” researchers wrote.
According to Haynes, moving forward, more obesity studies that examine social rhythms and sleep regularity are needed.
For more information:
Patricia L. Haynes, PhD, DBSM, can be reached at thaynes@arizona.edu.
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