Longer daytime napping may be linked to risk for NAFLD
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Napping for more than 60 minutes during the day positively correlated with risk for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in an occupational population in China, according to research published in BMC Gastroenterology.
“Optimal sleep duration is necessary for maintaining normal physical, cognitive and psychological function. ... However, a long napping duration may be detrimental to one’s health,” Chang Hong, of Nanfang Hospital and Southern Medical University in China, and colleagues wrote. “In this cohort study, we aimed to investigate the association between daytime napping duration and the risk of developing NAFLD among the working-age population of Guangdong Province using physical examination data from Nanfang Hospital.”
In a cross-sectional study, Hong and colleagues evaluated self-reported nap duration and total night sleep duration data from 3,363 individuals aged 20 to 79 years, of whom 140 were diagnosed with NAFLD via ultrasonography. Researchers noted that 77% of participants with NAFLD had a daytime napping duration of 30 minutes or more.
Compared with individuals who reported no napping (n = 391), those who reported 60 minutes or more of daytime napping (n = 833) had a more than two-fold increased risk for NAFLD in both the crude model (OR = 2.138; 95% CI, 1.029-4.443) and the multivariable adjustment model (OR = 2.211; 95% CI, 1.042-4.69), which accounted for demographic, educational and metabolic risk factors.
In addition, researchers noted the incidence of NAFLD increased across daytime napping durations (non-napping, 2.3%; less than 30 minutes, 2.6%; 30-60 minutes, 4.5%; and 60 minutes or more, 4.7%).
“This study demonstrates the potential negative effect of excessively long daily napping on NAFLD,” Hong and colleagues concluded. “Nevertheless, these results should be interpreted with caution because of the quality of the evidence, risk of bias and limited evidence of napping interventions.”
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts