1217 Racial/Ethnic Differences in Endorsement of Sleep Disorders Symptoms: Data from the Online Sleep Health Screening Project

Abstract Introduction Previous research has found that Black, Hispanic, and Asian individuals generally have lower sleep duration, lower sleep quality, and higher sleepiness. Few studies have explored how a wider array of sleep outcomes vary across race/ethnicity. Methods Participants completed an online sleep health screener that is available to the public (https://sleephealthscreen.com). This consists of the Sleep Disorders Symptom Check List (SDSCL), which includes 25 items related to sleep disorder symptoms. Race/ethnicity categories allowed for multiple selections. Therefore, analyses for each category examined a “Yes” vs “No” endorsement for each, irrespective of endorsement for other categories. All responses are anonymous. All consecutive responses to the questionnaire were included, following cleaning for duplicate and invalid entries. Ordinal regression analyses were adjusted for age, sex, work shift, work hours, and presence of a bed partner. Results A total of 3,091 individuals provided complete data. White respondents reported more fatigue, frequent awakenings, sleep hallucinations, sleep paralysis, nightmares, sudden awakenings, parasomnia-like symptoms, bruxism, and sleep interfering with functioning. Black respondents were more likely to report irregularity, more difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, more fatigue, gasping, frequent awakenings, sleep hallucinations, sleep paralysis, sudden awakenings, parasomnia-like symptoms, and sleep interfering with functioning. Hispanic/Latino respondents were more likely to report insufficient sleep, irregularity, difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep and early morning awakenings, more fatigue, morning dry mouth, breathing pauses, frequent awakenings, cataplexy-like symptoms, sleep hallucinations, sleep paralysis, nightmares, sudden awakenings, bruxism, and sleep interfering with functioning. Asian respondents were less likely to report difficulty staying asleep and early morning awakenings, and more likely to report phase delay. Conclusion Among real-world completers of an online sleep disorders screening questionnaire, there were reporting differences across groups. Hispanic/Latino individuals reported the highest number of sleep symptoms, though White and Black respondents also reported more symptoms than those who did not indicate being a member of those groups. Asian individuals reported the fewest sleep-related symptoms. Support (if any) R01MD011600, R01MH135978