The associations of sleep deficiency and frailty with multimorbidity among community-dwelling older adults in the Philippines and Viet Nam

We investigated the association of sleep deficiency and multimorbidity in the presence of frailty among community-dwelling older adults in the Philippines and Viet Nam. This cross-sectional study used data from the Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Health in the Philippines (2018, <i>N</i> = 3,598) and the Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Health in Viet Nam (2018, <i>N</i> = 4,396). Multimorbidity was defined as the presence of two or more chronic medical conditions within an individual. Sleep deficiency was conceptualized as self-reported short sleep duration (<6 hours), having trouble with falling asleep or maintaining sleep, and/or experiencing nonrestorative sleep. Frailty was estimated using self-reported measures based on a modified version of Fried's criteria. Logistic regression was used to analyze the data. Stratified analysis was used to investigate the association between sleep deficiency and multimorbidity by frailty status. The results showed that sleep deficiency was significantly related to 83% higher odds of experiencing multimorbidity in the Philippines and 57% higher odds of experiencing multimorbidity in Viet Nam when adjusting for frailty, demographics, body mass index, sleep medications, naps, mental health, and lifestyle. In the Philippines, sleep deficiency was significantly related to multimorbidity among individuals who were frail and not frail. In Viet Nam, sleep deficiency was significantly related to multimorbidity among individuals who were not frail. Overall, the findings suggest that managing or treating sleep deficiency among older adults in the Philippines and Viet Nam could reduce the risk of multimorbidity, although the associations were less clear among frail older adults in Viet Nam.