Sleep duration and biomarkers of inflammation in African American and white participants with a parental history of Alzheimer's disease

Introduction African Americans (AA)s have worse inflammation, worse sleep, and a greater incidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to whites; however, no studies have examined associations between biomarkers, sleep, and cognition, and differences by race. Methods Seventy-six cognitively normal, middle aged (45-65 years) adults with a parental history of AD were included in this study. Associations between biomarkers (tumor necrosis factor-alpha [TNF-alpha], interleukin-10 [IL-10], intercellular adhesion molecule-1 [ICAM-1],, and C-reactive protein [CRP]) and self-reported sleep or cognition measures, were assessed. Results Average sleep duration was significantly lower for AA versus whites (average[SD]) in hours: 6.02(1.18) versus 7.23(0.91), P = .000004). We found a statistically significant association between plasma IL-10 and sleep duration (Spearman's rho = 0.26, P = .04) and CSF ICAM-1 and sleep quality (Spearman's rho = 0.30, P = .03). Discussion Longer sleep duration is positively associated with plasma IL-10 levels irrespective of race. Sleep quality was positively associated with CSF ICAM-1 only in African Americans.

Automated summary

In this study, it was found that African Americans have shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality compared to whites. Plasma IL-10 levels are positively associated with sleep duration, while CSF ICAM-1 levels are only positively associated with sleep quality in African Americans.