Sleep Disordered Breathing and Sleep Duration and the Risk of Psoriasis and Melanoma in the United States

Sleep disordered breathing (snoring and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)) has been associated with negative health outcomes including diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and reduced quality of life, presumably due to systemic inflammation. Long and short sleep duration have been associated with morbidity, all-cause mortality, and cancer-specific mortality. No large prospective studies exist to explore the relationship between sleep disordered breathing and sleep duration and psoriasis and melanoma risk. This study prospectively evaluated the association between OSA and snoring and incident psoriasis in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS; 1997-2008) and the association between sleep duration and melanoma risk in the NHS (1986-2012), NHS II (2001-2009), and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS; 2000-2012). Cox proportional hazards were used to calculate age-adjusted and multivariate risk ratios. Over the follow-up period, there were 524 cases of psoriasis among the women who were assessed for sleep apnea. Women with OSA were more likely to have a higher BMI, be hypertensive, work night shifts, and have type 2 diabetes mellitus. The age-adjusted relative risk (RR) of psoriasis am