title: Ethnic differences in self-reported sleep duration in The Netherlands--the HELIUS study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We investigated ethnic differences in sleep duration, and the contribution of socio-economic status (SES) to the observed differences in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
  
  
  METHODS
  6959 participants (aged 18-71 years) from the multi-ethnic HELIUS cohort were studied. Outcome variables were short sleep (<7 h/night) and long sleep (≥9 h/night). Comparisons among groups were made using Prevalence Ratios (PRs).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ethnic minority groups were more likely than ethnic-Dutch to report short sleep, with prevalence ranging from 15.1% to 49.7% in men and 16.3% to 41.4% in women. Among men, the age-adjusted PRs ranged from 2.15 (95% CI 1.72-2.69) in Turkish to 3.31 (2.75-3.99) in Ghanaians; and among women, from 1.62 (1.30-2.01) in Turkish to 2.52 (2.15-2.95) in African-Surinamese, respectively. The prevalence of long sleep was significantly higher only in Moroccan men and all the ethnic minority women than in ethnic-Dutch women except for African-Surinamese. Adjustment for SES explains the ethnic difference in long sleep, but not for short sleep.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ethnic minority groups reported more short sleep than ethnic-Dutch, while there were no ethnic differences in long sleep. Further study is needed to investigate how this finding on short sleep may contribute to ethnic differences in health outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: k.o.anujuo@amc.uva.nl.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Anujuo
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Karien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stronks
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marieke B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Snijder
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Center for Healthful Behavior Change, Division of General Internal Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10010, USA.
authors.forename: Girardin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jean-Louis
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Center for Healthful Behavior Change, Division of General Internal Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10010, USA.
authors.forename: Gbenga
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ogedegbe
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Agyemang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D057566:Self Report; D012890:Sleep; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Ethnicity; Minority group; Shift work; Sleep; Sleep duration; Socioeconomic status