Citation

Abajobir AA, Kisely SR, Williams G, Strathearn L, Najman JM. Intern. Med. J. 2017; 47(8): 879-888.

Affiliation

Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research and Education Centre, The University of Queensland, Herston 4006, Queensland, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/imj.13459

PMID

28422454

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Available evidence from cross-sectional studies suggests that childhood maltreatment may be associated with a range of sleep disorders. However, these studies have not controlled for potential individual, familial and environmental level confounders.

AIM: To determine the association between childhood maltreatment and lower sleep quality, after adjusting for potential confounders.

METHODS: Data for the present study are from a pre-birth cohort study of 3778 young adults (52.6 % female) of the Mater Hospital-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy follow-up at a mean age of 20.6 years. The Mater Hospital-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy is a prospective Australian pre-birth cohort study of mothers consecutively recruited during their first obstetric clinic visit at Brisbane's Mater Hospital, 1981-83. Participants completed the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index at the 21-year follow-up. We linked this dataset to agency recorded substantiated cases of childhood maltreatment. A series of separate logistic regression models were used to test whether childhood maltreatment predicted lower sleep quality after adjustment for selected confounders.

RESULTS: Substantiated physical abuse significantly predicted lower sleep quality in males. Single and multiple forms of childhood maltreatment including age of maltreatment and number of substantiations did not predict lower sleep quality in either gender in both crude and adjusted models. Being never married, living in a residential problem area, cigarette smoking and internalising were significantly associated with lower sleep quality in fully adjusted model for the male-female combined sample.

CONCLUSIONS: Childhood maltreatment does not appear to predict young adult poor sleep quality, with the exception of physical abuse for males. While childhood maltreatment has been found to predict a range of mental health problems, childhood maltreatment does not appear to predict young adult occurring sleep problems. Poor sleep quality was accounted for by concurrent social disadvantage, cigarette smoking and internalising.

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Language: en

Keywords

adulthood sleep quality; longitudinal study; substantiated childhood maltreatment