PFAS may worsen sleep quality, shorten sleep duration for young adults with obesity
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Key takeaways:
- Adults in higher tertiles of three PFAS concentrations had a shorter sleep duration.
- Exposure to higher levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate was tied to more sleep disturbances and sleep-related impairment.
Exposure to higher levels of some types of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, may lead to shorter sleep duration and sleep disruptions for certain young adults, according to findings published in Environmental Advances.
In an analysis of data from young adults with a history of overweight or obesity and no diabetes, researchers examined associations between baseline/follow-up PFAS concentrations and sleep habits. Adults with higher plasma levels of perfluorodecanoic acid, perfluorohexane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate at either baseline or follow-up had a shorter sleep duration than participants in lower tertiles.
“Young adults with blood levels in the highest one-third of those PFAS levels slept an average of about 80 fewer minutes nightly than those in the lowest third,” Shiwen Li, PhD, MPH, postdoctoral scholar in the division of environmental health, department of population and public health sciences at University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, told Healio. “One of the potential biological pathways between PFAS and poor sleep is through dysregulated immune system.”
Li and colleagues obtained data from 136 young adults who were recruited to participate in the Metabolic and Asthma Incidence Research study from 2014 to 2018 and had plasma PFAS levels collected at baseline (mean age, 19.44 years; 55% men; 58% Hispanic). Of those participants, 76 had PFAS levels measured at follow-up conducted a mean 4.02 years after baseline. Sleep measures were collected at both baseline and follow-up. Sleep duration was self-reported. Researchers used eight-item short-form questionnaires to assess sleep disturbance and sleep-related impairment.
The study group slept a mean 8.04 hours at baseline and 6.86 hours at follow-up. PFAS levels declined from baseline to follow-up for six of seven types of PFAS examined in the study.
Participants were divided into tertiles based on PFAS concentration. Each 1-tertile increase in perfluorodecanoic acid level was tied to about an 0.39-hour decrease in sleep each night at baseline. At follow-up, each 1-tertile increase in perfluorohexane sulfonate level was tied to a 0.39-hour decrease in sleep duration and each 1-tertile increase in perfluorooctanoate level was tied to a 0.32-hour reduction in sleep length.
Higher levels of plasma perfluorooctane sulfonate were associated with a higher level of sleep disturbance (beta = 2.99; 95% CI, 0.67-5.31) and sleep-related impairment (beta = 3.35; 95% CI, 0.51-6.2) at follow-up. Increased levels of perfluorodecanoic acid were also tied to a greater increase in sleep disturbance score at follow-up (beta = 2.05; 95% CI, –0.01 to 4.12).
In a longitudinal analysis, higher levels of perfluorooctanoate at baseline were tied with lower sleep duration over time, though the effect of the chemical on sleep duration was reduced over time.
Researchers found perfluorooctane sulfonate, perfluorodecanoic acid and perfluorooctanoate were associated with multiple marker genes of sleep-wake disorder.
In a mediation analysis, corticosteroid 11-beta-dehydrogenase isozyme 1 mediated 37% of the effect of perfluorooctanoate on sleep duration at follow-up. Cathepsin B mediated the association between perfluorooctane sulfonate and sleep disturbances. Five proteins were found to mediate the association between perfluorooctane sulfonate and sleep-related impairment.
“Sleep is an important component of our health, and poor sleep quality can lead to increased risk for adverse health outcomes such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack and stroke later in life,” Li said in an interview. “PFAS can be found in most of the common household products, and reducing contact with PFAS-containing products is an effective approach [for reducing exposure]. Paying close attention to the label of consumer products can be a first step.”
Li said more research is needed to assess chemicals being used to replace PFAS to determine their effects on health. Additionally, Li said researchers are hoping to understand how to use wearable devices to measure sleep more accurately in the future.
For more information:
Shiwen Li, PhD, MPH, can be reached at shiwenli@usc.edu.
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