Keramat, Syed Afroz, Alam, Khorshed, Basri, Rabeya, Mohammed, Aliu, Seidu, Abdul-Aziz, Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku, and Al Mamun, Abdullah (2025) Sleep quality, obesity and the risk of multimorbidity among Australian middle-aged and older adults: Evidence from a national longitudinal household survey. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 49 (6). 100280.

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Abstract

Objective: We aim to examine whether sleep quality and obesity are important risk factors for multimorbidity among middle-aged and older adults in Australia. Methods: We analysed 22,551 person-year observations from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. We used fixed-effects multinomial logistic regression to explore the relationship between sleep quality and obesity with multimorbidity risk. Results: We found that worsening an individual's sleep quality from good to poor was linked to a 1.65-fold increase in their risk of multimorbidity (relative risk ratio: 1.65, 95% confidence interval: 1.33–2.04). Transitioning from a healthy weight to obesity was associated with a 2.28 times higher risk of developing multimorbidity (relative risk ratio: 2.28, 95% confidence interval: 1.55–3.37). We also found that transitioning from good sleep and healthy weight to poor sleep and obesity resulted in a 3.82-fold increase in their relative risk of multimorbidity (relative risk ratio: 3.82, 95% confidence interval: 2.35–6.19). Conclusions: The findings highlight the need for public health strategies and health promotion programs to tackle these modifiable risk factors. Implications for Public Health: A key priority should be funding evidence-based implementation research to identify the most effective ways to deliver the proven interventions for sleep health and weight management across diverse Australian communities.

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