Towards an understanding of the relationship between sleep and cardiovascular disease risk in adults of African descent living in a low socioeconomic status community
type: CreativeWork
description: Background: Individuals of African descent, specifically African Americans and those from Sub-Saharan Africa, experience a higher burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its associated risk factors (such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension) as well as shorter, poorer sleep quality, compared to Caucasian American individuals. Blood pressure (BP) non-dipping (i.e. the failure of BP to decrease at night during sleep) and nocturnal hypertension are important markers of CVD risk and are substantially more prevalent in African American, compared to Caucasian American, individuals. Two additional layers that need consideration are socioeconomic status (SES) and sex. In contrast to much of the research in the Global North predominantly demonstrating shorter objective and subjective sleep durations (around 6- 7h per night) among African descended individuals living in low SES environments, South Africans of African descent living in low SES communities report much longer sleep durations, around 8-10h per night. Thus, while on one hand, lower SES has been associated with higher risk for CVD possibly through shorter sleep, the nature of the relationship between long sleep duration and CVD risk in the South African context is not well understood. Given the significant sex-specific differences in both CVD risk and sleep, there is a need for research focused on understanding sex-specific associations between CVD and sleep health. Thus, the purpose of this thesis was to investigate sex-specific relationships between CVD risk, nocturnal BP and sleep health in adults of African descent living in a low SES community in South Africa. This purpose was achieved through the following aims: i) to investigate sex-specific relationships between self-reported sleep characteristics and CVD risk among individuals of African descent living in a low SES community, ii) to investigate sex-specific relationships between actigraphy-derived sleep characteristics and CVD risk in these same indivi…
abstract: Background: Individuals of African descent, specifically African Americans and those from Sub-Saharan Africa, experience a higher burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its associated risk factors (such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension) as well as shorter, poorer sleep quality, compared to Caucasian American individuals. Blood pressure (BP) non-dipping (i.e. the failure of BP to decrease at night during sleep) and nocturnal hypertension are important markers of CVD risk and are substantially more prevalent in African American, compared to Caucasian American, individuals. Two additional layers that need consideration are socioeconomic status (SES) and sex. In contrast to much of the research in the Global North predominantly demonstrating shorter objective and subjective sleep durations (around 6- 7h per night) among African descended individuals living in low SES environments, South Africans of African descent living in low SES communities report much longer sleep durations, around 8-10h per night. Thus, while on one hand, lower SES has been associated with higher risk for CVD possibly through shorter sleep, the nature of the relationship between long sleep duration and CVD risk in the South African context is not well understood. Given the significant sex-specific differences in both CVD risk and sleep, there is a need for research focused on understanding sex-specific associations between CVD and sleep health. Thus, the purpose of this thesis was to investigate sex-specific relationships between CVD risk, nocturnal BP and sleep health in adults of African descent living in a low SES community in South Africa. This purpose was achieved through the following aims: i) to investigate sex-specific relationships between self-reported sleep characteristics and CVD risk among individuals of African descent living in a low SES community, ii) to investigate sex-specific relationships between actigraphy-derived sleep characteristics and CVD risk in these same indivi…
author: Forshaw, Philippa
language: en
keywords: African descent, African Americans, Sub-Saharan Africa, cardiovascular disease
date published: 2025
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:39Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Human Biology

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42182