Short sleep hours, depression tied to fall accidents among postmenopausal women

Among postmenopausal women, short sleep duration and depression contribute to increased fall accidents, as reported in a study.

The study included 2,378 postmenopausal women aged ≥45 years from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Each participant provided data on falls, sleep duration, and midday napping. Depression was assessed using the Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.

A total of 478 (20.10 percent) participants reported falls in the previous 2 years. Multivariate logistic regression showed that fall prevalence was higher among women sleeping less than 7 hours per night (5–6 h/night: odds ratio [OR], 1.49, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.03–2.15; ≤5 h/night: OR, 1.63, 95 percent CI, 1.18–2.25). There was no significant association between sleep duration of >8 h/night and falls.

Participants with versus without depression were also more likely to report fall accidents (OR, 1.78, 95 percent CI, 1.41–2.25).

Falls showed no independent association with the duration of midday napping, but there were significant joint associations seen with sleeping ≤6 h/night and no napping (OR, 1.72, 95 percent CI, 1.07–2.76) and sleeping ≤6 h/night and napping >60 minutes (OR, 2.14, 95 percent CI, 1.18–3.89).

Similarly, a combined status of sleeping ≤6 h/night and depression correlated with more falls (OR, 2.97, 95 percent CI, 1.86–4.74).

Additional longitudinal studies are needed to confirm the findings.