Epidemiology of Sleep Disturbances Among the Adult Population of the Sao Paulo City

Sleep disturbances are of great relevance within the context of public health as they affect a sizable portion of the population with far reaching consequences. Many automobile and labor accidents as well as poor school and work performance can be traced to sleep disturbances, which are also linked to cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and psycho-cognitive alterations.

OBJECTIVES:

1. Establish the epidemiologic profile of sleep disturbances among the adult population of the city of Sao Paulo in 2007; 2. Investigate associations between sleep patterns and disturbances in that population, taking into account the following variables: social-demographic status, anthropometrics, clinical, activity/rest cycle, eating and physical activity habits, mood disturbances, sexual dysfunction in males, alcoholism, drug addiction, genetic markers, biochemical, hematological, endocrine, immunologic and inflammatory indicators; 3. assess the compatibility of the results collected in the current study with those of epidemiologic sleep investigations of said city carried out in 1987 and 1995 with the aim of determining the secular sleep disturbance trend.

METHODS:

The two-stage cluster randomized sample included 1100 individuals of the city of Sao Paulo, representing the population proportionally to gender, age groups and social classes. Data were amassed as follows:

1. the application of home and institution questionnaires; 2. description of the sleep patterns and disturbances through polysomnography and actigraphy, performed at the Sleep Institute; 3. collection of peripheral blood for biochemical, hematologic, endocrine and genetic assays.

STATISTICS:

Subsequent to double typing (inputting) and analysis of data consistency, descriptive and analytical statistical assessments will be performed with the aim of describing patterns of sleep disturbances associated to the explanatory variables under investigation. In the light of bi-varied analysis, predictive/explanatory multivaried models were adjusted.