title: Socioeconomic status, occupational characteristics, and sleep duration in African/Caribbean immigrants and US White health care workers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  o advance our understanding of the interplay of socioeconomic factors, occupational exposures, and race/ethnicity as they relate to sleep duration. We hypothesize that non Hispanic African/Caribbean immigrant employees in long term health care have shorter sleep duration than non Hispanic white employees, and that low education, low income, and occupational exposures including night work and job strain account for some of the African/Caribbean immigrant-white difference in sleep duration.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross sectional
  
  
  METHODS
  Four extended care facilities in Massachusetts, United States
  
  
  METHODS
  340 employees in extended care facilities
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sleep duration was assessed with wrist actigraphy for a mean of 6.3 days. In multivariable regression modeling controlling for gender and age, African/Caribbean immigrants slept 64.4 fewer minutes (95% CI: -81.0, -47.9) per night than white participants; additional control for education and income reduced the racial gap to 50.9 minutes (-69.2, -32.5); additional control for the occupational factors of hours worked per week and working the night shift reduced the racial gap to 37.7 minutes (-57.8, -17.6).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  his study provides support for the hypothesis that socioeconomic and occupational characteristics explain some of the African/ Caribbean immigrant-white difference in sleep duration in the United States, especially among health care workers.
authors: Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, MA 02115, USA. kertel@hsph.harvard.edu
authors: Karen A
authors: KA
authors: Ertel
authors: Lisa F
authors: LF
authors: Berkman
authors: Orfeu M
authors: OM
authors: Buxton
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D017691:Caribbean Region / Q000208:ethnology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006281:Health Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D009790:Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012890:Sleep; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*