Self-report of trouble sleeping by race/ethnicity in pregnant women and women of child-bearing age

The purpose of this secondary analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2005-2010 was to examine report of trouble sleeping to a physician and inadequate sleep (≤5 hours) by race/ethnicity in pregnant (N=432) and non-pregnant women (N=3175) of childbearing age (15-44 years old).  The proportion who reported trouble sleeping, inadequate sleep time, and both trouble sleeping and inadequate sleep was estimated by race/ethnicity, stratified by pregnancy status. The differences in the proportions by race/ethnicity were tested using the Rao-Scott χ² statistic.  In both pregnant and non-pregnant women, non-Hispanic white women (17.6% and 27.2% respectively) were more likely to have reported trouble sleeping than Mexican-American (9.2% and 10.0%) or non-Hispanic black women (11.4% and 19.6%), though the difference was only significant in non-pregnant women (p<0.01).  In contrast, in both groups, non-Hispanic black women (19.7% pregnant and 22.7% non-pregnant) were significantly more likely to report inadequate sleep than non-Hispanic white (3.4% and 11.0%) and Mexican-American women (7.9% and 10.6%).  Among women with inadequate sleep, non-Hispanic white women (37.9% pregnant and 51.8% non-pregnant) were most likely to report trouble sleeping, as compared to non-Hispanic blacks (16.1% and 27.8%) and Mexican-Americans (26.4% and 22.9%, p<0.01).  In conclusion, non-Hispanic white women were more likely to report trouble sleeping to a physician, while non-Hispanic black women were more likely to report inadequate amounts of sleep.  Further, non-Hispanic white women were more likely to have reported trouble sleeping to a physician than minority women getting the same amount of sleep.