Approved Research

Sleep health and modifiable lifestyle factors in relation to gastrointestinal disease incidence and mortality

Lay summary

Gastrointestinal diseases, such as irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, oesophageal adenocarcinoma, gastric cancer and colorectal cancer, poses an enormous disease burden globally. Previous studies have reported several potential risk factors for gastrointestinal diseases, including smoking, alcohol drinking, obesity, and red meat consumption. Early interventions based on the identified risk factors may play a causative role in preventing and controlling gastrointestinal diseases. Nevertheless, except for the traditional risk factors, novel factors are scarcely studied, such as sleep feature and its interactions with other modifiable lifestyle factors, possibly influencing gastrointestinal disease incidence and mortality risk. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the potential impact of individual and combined effects of sleep health and modifiable lifestyle factors on gastrointestinal diseases incidence and mortality.

The study purposes are as follows: (1) To estimate the impact of self-reported, device-measured, and genetically determined sleep feature and modifiable lifestyle factors on gastrointestinal disease incidence and mortality. (2) To assess the synergistic effect of sleep feature and the modifiable lifestyle factors on gastrointestinal disease incidence and mortality.

The estimated duration of this project is 36 months. This study will identify potential risk factors for gastrointestinal diseases incidence and mortality, and evaluate the impact of sleep health and its combined effect with modifiable lifestyle factors on gastrointestinal diseases incidence and mortality. This findings could be used to develop prevention and intervention strategies, and thus help to prevent gastrointestinal diseases in both general and high risk population.