Abstract
Background: A growing body of research highlights the negative impact of caregiving on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Objectives: This study aimed to examine associations of psychological symptoms and sleep quality with 24-hour blood pressure variability (BPV), which is an independent predictor of CVD, among family caregivers of community-dwelling individuals with chronic illness. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, we assessed caregiving burden and depressive symptoms using questionnaires and 7-day sleep quality (i.e., number of awakenings, wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency) using an actigraph. The participants carried out a 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring for systolic and diastolic BPV over 24 h and during awake/sleep times. We performed Pearson's correlations and multiple linear regression. Results: The analytic sample consisted of 30 caregivers (25 female; mean age 62 years). The number of awakenings during sleep was positively correlated with systolic BPV-awake (r = 0.426, p = 0.019) and diastolic BPV-awake (r = 0.422, p = 0.020). Sleep efficiency was negatively correlated with diastolic BPV-awake (r = -0.368, p = 0.045). Caregiving burden and depressive symptoms were not correlated with BPV. After controlling for age and mean arterial pressure, the number of awakenings was significantly associated with increased systolic BPV-24 h (β = 0.194, p = 0.018) and systolic BPV-awake (β = 0.280, p = 0.002), respectively. Conclusions: Caregivers’ disrupted sleep may play a role in increased CVD risk. While these findings should be confirmed in large clinical studies, improving sleep quality would need to be considered in CVD prevention for caregivers.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 45-51 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Heart and Lung |
Volume | 60 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study is supported by the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science/Southern Nursing Research Society (CANS/SNRS) Dissertation Research Grant . The funding source had no involvement in the conduct of the research and preparation of the article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Inc.
Keywords
- Behavioral Symptoms
- Blood pressure monitoring, Ambulatory
- Caregivers
- Health behavior
- Sleep quality
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
- Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine