PhD student : Nathalia Garcia Ocampo
Title : Longitudinal association of napping with incident cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative diseases in older adults
Supervisors : Séverine Sabia
Doctoral school : ED 393 – Pierre Louis de Santé Publique
Funding : Réseau doctorale en santé publique
Thesis abstract : With the ageing of the population, the number of people living with chronic diseases is on the rise, particularly among older adults. Recently, a potential association between napping and chronic conditions such as cardiometabolic diseases and neurodegenerative disorders has been suggested. Napping, a common lifestyle habit and potentially modifiable risk factor, is frequently observed among older adults.
However, conflicting findings regarding its positive or adverse effects on health highlight the need for further investigation, especially in ageing populations where, as mentioned before, the burden of chronic diseases is high.
Although some studies have examined the associations of napping with both cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative diseases, most relied on self-reported measures of napping, raising potential concerns about misclassification. Even in the notable studies that used objective measures of naps, key aspects such as the timing of naps relative to the main sleep period and the regularity of napping over the week have been overlooked. Accelerometer measures of sleep and wake patterns over a week offer an opportunity to measure key features of napping —including duration, frequency, timing, and regularity— and their association with cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative disease in older adults.
Therefore, this project aims to determine the longitudinal association of napping, inferred objectively by wrist-worn accelerometers, with incident cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative diseases in older adults over a 11-year follow-up period. As a secondary objective, this PhD will assess the impact of circadian rhythm and nocturnal sleep characteristics on these associations.
