Childhood maltreatment and adulthood poor sleep quality: a longitudinal study

Amanuel A Abajobir; Steve Kisely; Gail Williams; Lane Strathearn; Jake M Najman

doi:10.1111/imj.13459

Childhood maltreatment and adulthood poor sleep quality: a longitudinal study

Intern Med J. 2017 Aug;47(8):879-888. doi: 10.1111/imj.13459.

Authors

Amanuel A Abajobir¹, Steve Kisely^{2

3}, Gail Williams¹, Lane Strathearn^{4

5}, Jake M Najman^{1

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
² Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
³ Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
⁴ Stead Family Department of Pediatrics, Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.
⁵ Center for Disabilities and Development, University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.
⁶ Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Social Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁷ Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research and Education Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

PMID: 28422454
DOI: 10.1111/imj.13459

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 were obtained 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 in 1981-1983. Participants completed the Pittsburgh 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 was 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. Not being married, living in a residential problem area, cigarette smoking and internalising were significantly associated with lower sleep quality in a 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 sleep problems occurring in young adults. Poor sleep quality was accounted for by concurrent social disadvantage, cigarette smoking and internalising.

Keywords: adulthood sleep quality; longitudinal study; substantiated childhood maltreatment.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Child
Child Abuse / classification
Child Abuse / psychology*
Child Abuse / statistics & numerical data
Child, Preschool
Cigarette Smoking / adverse effects
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Logistic Models
Male
Pregnancy
Prospective Studies
Self Report
Sex Factors
Sleep Wake Disorders / epidemiology
Sleep Wake Disorders / etiology*
Sleep Wake Disorders / psychology
Socioeconomic Factors
Young Adult