Study Objectives:The sleep patterns of humans are greatly influenced by age and sex and have various effects on overall health as they change continuously during the lifespan. We investigated age-d...

Objective: Women who undergo surgical menopause (SM) experience a relatively more acute and precipitous drop of estrogen compared with women who experience natural menopause (NM). Few studies, however, have compared sleep quality in women who experience natural versus SM. Methods: Participants were 526 postmenopausal women (mean age 60.2 ± 7.64). All participants completed self-report questionnaires about insomnia symptoms, sleep-interfering behaviors, depression, sleep quality, and gynecological history. Analysis of covariance was conducted to compare women who experienced NM versus SM on sleep variables. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine whether NM or SM groups predicted insomnia status. Regression-based moderation analysis was conducted to explore the moderating effect of type of menopause on the relationship between sleep-interfering behaviors and insomnia symptoms. Results: Among the sample, 81.6% (n = 429) reported going through NM and 18.4% (n = 97) reported going through SM. The SM group was significantly younger by 7.2 years (P < 0.001). Women in the SM group reported significantly worse sleep quality (P = 0.007), especially for sleep duration (P = 0.001) and habitual sleep efficiency (P = 0.010) compared with women in the NM group. Regression analysis indicated that individuals in the SM group were 2.131 (95% CI 1.055-4.303) times more likely to have insomnia compared with the NM group (P = 0.027). In addition, women in the SM group who displayed more sleep-interfering behaviors also had a higher severity of insomnia symptoms compared with women who experience NM (ß = 0.26, P = 0.03). Conclusions: Menopause can be both physically and psychologically challenging, but women who undergo SM experience worse sleep quality compared with women who experience NM, and may benefit from behavioral interventions.

Background: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes. However, results from large population-based prospective cohort studies are rare. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the relative risk of 8-year incident type 2 diabetes in relation to OSA severity in a prospective cohort study of middle-aged and older adults.Methods: A total of 2918 participants (mean age 59 years) of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES), who underwent home-based overnight polysomnography at baseline examination between 2011 and 2014, were followed up 4-yearly between 2015–2018 and 2019–2021. A total of 1697 participants were present in both follow-ups. After excluding participants who had diabetes at baseline (n=481), a total of 1216 participants were eligible for the analyses.Results: OSA at baseline was categorised by apnoea–hypopnoea index levels as non-OSA (0–4.9 events·h⁻¹), mild OSA (5.0–14.9 events·h⁻¹) and moderate–severe OSA (≥15.0 events·h⁻¹). Incident type 2 diabetes was identified at each follow-up. Compared with non-OSA, participants with moderate–severe OSA had 1.5 times higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes at the end of the 8-year follow-up after adjusting for potential covariates (relative risk 1.50, 95% CI 1.02–2.21). In the same analytical models for 4-year relative risk of incident type 2 diabetes, none of the OSA groups were at significantly higher risk compared with the non-OSA group.Conclusion: Moderate–severe OSA, a modifiable risk factor, poses a higher risk of incident type 2 diabetes compared with non-OSA over an 8-year period in general middle-aged and older adults.

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a common form of sleep disordered breathing. Untreated OSA might accelerate atherosclerosis, potentially increasing the cardiovascular disease burden in patients. The present study aimed to evaluate the association between objectively measured OSA severity and the presence of subclinical systemic atherosclerosis using noninvasive measurements, including tomographic quantification of the calcium burden.A total of 2157 participants of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study, who were free of structural heart disease and underwent both in-home polysomnography and chest computed tomography, were cross-sectionally analysed. Participants were divided into three groups based on the severity of OSA: no OSA (apnoea–hypopnoea index (AHI) <5 events·h⁻¹, n=1096), mild OSA (AHI 5– <15 events·h⁻¹, n=700) and moderate-to-severe OSA (AHI ≥15 events·h⁻¹, n=361). Calcium deposits in the thoracic aorta and coronary arteries were measured by the Agatston score.Participants with moderate-to-severe OSA were 1.6 times (95% CI 1.18–2.15 times; p=0.002) more likely to have ascending thoracic aorta calcification (≥100 units) than those without OSA, after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors. In addition, the association between moderate-to-severe OSA and ascending thoracic aorta calcification of subjects with higher epicardial fat volume was slightly stronger than that in patients without OSA and in the lowest epicardial fat volume tertile (OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.30–3.43).Severity of OSA in the general population was independently associated with subclinical systemic atherosclerosis. These findings highlight the potential importance of severe OSA, especially in subjects with higher epicardial fat, as a possible predictive factor for systemic atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.

This study aims to determine if a large anterior and reduced posterior/superior joint space is highly predictable for disc displacement. From patients with temporomandibular disorders symptoms, fifty-two experimental joints and fourteen control joints were included. The cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images were used to calculate posterior-to-anterior (P-A) and superior-to-anterior (S-A) joint space ratios, while disc position was determined using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). One-way analysis of covariance test and receiver operating characteristics analysis were carried out. The results showed that among the 52 experimental joints, 45 were diagnosed as disc displacement and 7 as normal disc positions (N). All 14 control joints showed normal disc positions. The P-A ratio was 1.46 ± 0.21, 0.99 ± 0.23, and 0.86 ± 0.30 in the control, N, and DD groups, respectively (p < 0.001). The S-A ratio was 1.80 ± 0.27, 1.44 ± 0.33, and 1.08 ± 0.35 in the control, N, and DD groups, respectively (p < 0.001). When an altered P-A ratio and/or S-A ratio are observed on the CBCT, the diagnosis of disc displacement is quite predictable with high sensitivity and specificity.