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Relationship between dietary diversity and sleep quality: a Chinese community-based study

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Abstract

Objectives

The objective of this study was to examine the association between dietary diversity and sleep quality among Chinese middle-aged and older adults.

Methods

The Lifestyle and Healthy Aging of Chinese Square Dancer Study is a prospective, community-based cohort study that enrolled participants aged 45 years and above from 2020 to 2021. Using the semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire to investigate the diets of study participants, and using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess sleep quality. Dietary diversity was assessed using two scoring methods covering ten food groups and 66 food items, respectively: the dietary diversity score (DDS) and the food variety score (FVS). The higher scores of DDS and FVS indicated greater dietary diversity and higher dietary quality. Logistic regression analysis explored the associations between these scores and sleep quality.

Results

A total of 2409 individuals with completed information on PSQI and FFQ were included in this study, of whom 767 (31.8%) had poor sleep quality. Participants with higher DDS were associated with an 18% lower odds of poor sleep quality compared to those with low DDS (OR = 0.82, 95% CI, 0.68–0.98). Participants in the highest quartile of the FVS had a 32% lower odds of poor sleep quality than those in the lowest quartile (OR = 0.68, 95% CI, 0.52–0.89).

Conclusions

There was a positive correlation between higher FVS and DDS with better sleep quality. Therefore, ensuring a diverse diet may be beneficial for maintaining good sleep quality among middle-aged and older adults.

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Data availability

The datasets used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We express our gratitude to all the participants who took part in the study, and all the investigators represented by Tingting Wei for their valuable contribution.

Funding

Funding for the research was provided by two sources: the Square Dance Cohort Fund of CNS Academy of Nutrition and Health (Beijing Zhongyinghui Nutrition and Health Research Institute) and the Scientific Research Start-up Fund of Wuhan University.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Xiaoge Wang and Dan Luo contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Xiaoge Wang, Yuanyuan Li, Senli Deng & Shuang Rong

  2. Research Center of Public Health, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Xiaoge Wang, Yuanyuan Li, Senli Deng & Shuang Rong

  3. School of Nursing, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Dan Luo

  4. Research Center of Nursing, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Dan Luo

  5. Academy of Nutrition and Health, Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard, Identification and Control, School of Public Health, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430065, China

    Tingting Li

Authors
  1. Xiaoge Wang
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  2. Dan Luo
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  3. Tingting Li
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  4. Yuanyuan Li
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Contributions

Shuang Rong: conceptualization, methodology, supervision. Xiaoge Wang: investigation, software, writing—original draft preparation. Dan Luo: visualization, supervision, validation, writing—reviewing and editing. Tingting Li: data curation, writing—reviewing and editing. Yuanyuan Li, Senli Deng: investigation, data curation. All authors contributed to critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content. The published version of the manuscript has been reviewed and approved by all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shuang Rong.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

Approval for conducting the study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Wuhan University (ethics number: IRB2022027), Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (ethics number: WDRY2022-K187), and Wuhan University of Science and Technology (ethics number: 202049), located in Wuhan, China. All participants were required to provide informed consent prior to participating in the study. The cross-sectional study adhered to the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Cite this article

Wang, X., Luo, D., Li, T. et al. Relationship between dietary diversity and sleep quality: a Chinese community-based study. Sleep Breath (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-024-03006-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-024-03006-3

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