Physical activity, sleep and risk of respiratory infections: A Swedish cohort study
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: Previous studies found higher levels of physical activity to be protective against infections and that short and long sleep negatively affects the immune response. However, these relationships remain debatable. We aimed to investigate if physical activity and sleep habits affect incidence of upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) in a prospective cohort study. METHODS: A total of 2,038 adults aged 25-64 years served as a random sample of the gainfully employed population of an industrial town in Sweden. Physical activity and sleep habits were estimated through self-reported questionnaires. Physical activity was expressed as metabolic energy turnover hours per day. Sleep was assessed as number of hours slept per night and its perceived quality. URTI outcome was prospectively self-reported during a 9-month follow-up period. Associations of physical activity and sleep with URTI were estimated using hurdle regression models adjusted for potential confounders. RESULTS: During 1,583 person-years 1,597 URTI occurred, resulting in an incidence of 1.01 infections/person-year (95% CI 0.96-1.06). The fitted regression models did not provide support for an association with physical activity or sleep habits. Factors positively associated with experiencing URTI were having children ≤ 6 years, female gender, higher education and treatment for allergy, asthma or lung cancer. Having children ≤ 6 years and female gender were related to a higher number of URTI among those experiencing URTI. CONCLUSIONS: We did not find any association between physical activity, sleep duration or sleep quality and the occurrence of upper respiratory tract infections in adult Swedish population.
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From The Sleep-Immune Crosstalk in Health and Disease (2019) · cites this paper as [209]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Ghilotti, F., Pesonen, A.-S., Raposo, S. E., Winell, H., Nyrén, O., Trolle Lagerros, Y., & Plymoth, A.
- Affiliations
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- Harvard University (US)
- Uppsala University (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Ghilotti, Francesca
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2018-01-04
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- e0190270
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5754073
- OpenAlex
- W2782380658
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 1.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- AFA Försäkring (090282)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Pediatric health and respiratory diseases
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Rehabilitation › Exercise and Physiological Responses
- Keywords
- physical activity, sleep duration, sleep quality, upper respiratory tract infection, respiratory infection risk, adults, metabolic cost, asthma, lung cancer, children under 6 years, sex differences
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Respiratory Tract Infections, Risk Factors, Sleep, Cohort Studies, Incidence
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