Association of healthy sleep patterns with incident cervical disc disorders: a prospective study

BACKGROUND: There is limited evidence regarding the relationship between multidimensional sleep behaviors and incident cervical disc disorders. This study examined whether a composite healthy sleep pattern was associated with the subsequent risk of cervical disc disorders. METHODS: This prospective cohort study used data from the UK Biobank. Participants with baseline cervical disc disorders or missing data were excluded, leaving 399,862 participants for analysis. A composite healthy sleep score was derived from five sleep characteristics: sleep chronotype, sleep duration, insomnia, snoring, and daytime sleepiness. The primary outcome was incident cervical disc disorders, identified using ICD-10 codes (M50). Cox proportional hazards models were fitted with adjustment for demographic, lifestyle, and socioeconomic covariates. RESULTS: During follow-up, 2,735 incident cases were documented. Each 1-point increase in the healthy sleep score was associated with an 18% lower risk (HR = 0.82; 95% CI: 0.79-0.85). Participants with a score of 5 had a lower risk than those with a score of 0-1 (HR = 0.43; 95% CI: 0.35-0.52). The inverse association was stronger among participants with higher socioeconomic deprivation (P for interaction = 0.018). CONCLUSION: In this cohort analysis, baseline adherence to healthy sleep behaviors was associated with a significantly lower risk of cervical disc disorders, suggesting that promoting healthy sleep may be a viable strategy for primary prevention.