Associations between changes in habitual sleep duration and lower self-rated health among COVID-19 survivors: [online survey], 2023, Matsui et al

Abstract
Background

Self-rated health (SRH) is widely recognized as a clinically significant predictor of subsequent mortality risk. Although COVID-19 may impair SRH, this relationship has not been extensively examined. The present study aimed to examine the correlation between habitual sleep duration, changes in sleep duration after infection, and SRH in subjects who have experienced SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods
Participants from 16 countries participated in the International COVID Sleep Study-II (ICOSS-II) online survey in 2021. A total of 10,794 of these participants were included in the analysis, including 1,509 COVID-19 individuals (who reported that they had tested positive for COVID-19). SRH was evaluated using a 0-100 linear visual analog scale. Habitual sleep durations of < 6 h and > 9 h were defined as short and long habitual sleep duration, respectively. Changes in habitual sleep duration after infection of ≤ -2 h and ≥ 1 h were defined as decreased or increased, respectively.

Results
Participants with COVID-19 had lower SRH scores than non-infected participants, and those with more severe COVID-19 had a tendency towards even lower SRH scores. In a multivariate regression analysis of participants who had experienced COVID-19, both decreased and increased habitual sleep duration after infection were significantly associated with lower SRH after controlling for sleep quality (β = −0.056 and −0.058, respectively, both p < 0.05); however, associations between current short or long habitual sleep duration and SRH were negligible. Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that decreased habitual sleep duration was significantly related to increased fatigue (odds ratio [OR] = 1.824, p < 0.01), shortness of breath (OR = 1.725, p < 0.05), diarrhea/nausea/vomiting (OR = 2.636, p < 0.01), and hallucinations (OR = 5.091, p < 0.05), while increased habitual sleep duration was significantly related to increased fatigue (OR = 1.900, p < 0.01).

Conclusions
Changes in habitual sleep duration following SARS-CoV-2 infection were associated with lower SRH. Decreased or increased habitual sleep duration might have a bidirectional relation with post-COVID-19 symptoms. Further research is needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying these relationships for in order to improve SRH in individuals with COVID-19.

Peer Review reports

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-023-17258-3

 

It also might not have, and simply be a consequence of that poor health. In fact, it's far more likely and rational that it be the case. Hypothesizing otherwise is not falsifiable and has no basis other than trying to find an alternative cause for the poor health, anything but the consequences of the infection, which makes it unscientific.

Long Covid research, and decades of failed fantasies about chronic illness, have proven that outside of biomedical knowledge medical research cannot properly research causative processes, in fact commonly reattributes the consequences as a cause. So research is not more needed, this is not something that is possible to research with the current tools and methods.

But the way academia is built defines everything: more research funding is needed because the researchers want more research funding. It's a top-down supply-driven approach that essentially ignores what is actually needed in favor of a conclusion-driven process where research and data explicitly seek to "prove" a pre-determined conclusion, rather than following the scientific principle of falsification.

Too much of medical research, and almost all "pragmatic" clinical research, is essentially stuck at the stage where alchemy was to chemistry, before it was a proper science with accurate measurements and scientific methodologies. They're not doing science, they're just applying weird recipes spread through word-of-mouth that make no sense and follow no reason, might as well be shamanism for all that it matters.

But no doubt they'll get more funding anyway, and ask for more funding in 2-3 years time when they publish yet another useless paper that makes no useful contribution to anything and anyone but themselves.