{"doi":"10.3389/fpubh.2025.1576629","title":"Association between nighttime sleep duration and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adult patients with multimorbidity: the mediating role of depression","abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Objective</jats:title><jats:p>To investigate the mediating role of depression in the relationship between nighttime sleep duration and cognitive function among middle-aged and older adult patients with multimorbidity, providing insights for mitigating cognitive decline.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>Utilizing data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) (2015 and 2020 waves), 4,210 participants with ≥2 chronic conditions were included. Correlation, regression, and mediation analyses were conducted to examine associations between sleep duration, depression, and cognitive function.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The prevalence of cognitive impairment was 35.7%. Nighttime sleep duration showed a weak positive correlation with cognitive function (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = 0.071, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.01) and a stronger negative correlation with depression (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = −0.251, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.01). Depression was negatively correlated with cognitive function (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = −0.262, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.01). Mediation analysis revealed that depression fully mediated the sleep-cognition relationship [indirect effect: 0.120, 95% CI (0.100–0.141); direct effect nonsignificant].</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>Depression fully mediates the association between nighttime sleep duration and cognitive function in multimorbidity patients. Interventions targeting sleep hygiene and mental health may synergistically alleviate cognitive decline in this population.</jats:p></jats:sec>","journal":"Frontiers in Public Health","year":2025,"id":641743,"datarank":0.16479184330021646,"base_score":1.0986122886681096,"endowment":1.0986122886681096,"self_citation_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1418763,"name":"Xingyu Liu","orcid":"0000-0003-3190-251X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1668734,"name":"Xiuwei Da","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1616899,"name":"Ming Jia","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Association between nighttime sleep duration and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adult patients with multimorbidity: the mediating role of depression","abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Objective</jats:title><jats:p>To investigate the mediating role of depression in the relationship between nighttime sleep duration and cognitive function among middle-aged and older adult patients with multimorbidity, providing insights for mitigating cognitive decline.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>Utilizing data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) (2015 and 2020 waves), 4,210 participants with ≥2 chronic conditions were included. Correlation, regression, and mediation analyses were conducted to examine associations between sleep duration, depression, and cognitive function.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The prevalence of cognitive impairment was 35.7%. Nighttime sleep duration showed a weak positive correlation with cognitive function (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = 0.071, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.01) and a stronger negative correlation with depression (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = −0.251, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.01). Depression was negatively correlated with cognitive function (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = −0.262, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.01). Mediation analysis revealed that depression fully mediated the sleep-cognition relationship [indirect effect: 0.120, 95% CI (0.100–0.141); direct effect nonsignificant].</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>Depression fully mediates the association between nighttime sleep duration and cognitive function in multimorbidity patients. Interventions targeting sleep hygiene and mental health may synergistically alleviate cognitive decline in this population.</jats:p></jats:sec>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":1.0986122886681096,"endowment":1.0986122886681096,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"40703181","pmcid":"PMC12283587","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4412140224","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":1.5361,"citation_percentile":0.83192261,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2026,"count":2}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1576629/pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1576629/pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1576629/full","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1576629","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40703181","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/6be0ad9d0f0b4b79978d233881e8d41a","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/12283587","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12283587","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12283587?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"}],"fields_of_study":["Chronic Disease Management Strategies","Sleep and related disorders","Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research","Humans","Male","Female","Middle Aged","Multimorbidity","Depression","Aged","Longitudinal Studies","Cognitive Dysfunction","China","Sleep","Cognition","Time Factors","Chronic Disease","Prevalence","Sleep Duration"],"mesh_terms":["Multimorbidity","Sleep Duration","Aged","China","Chronic Disease","Cognition","Depression","Female","Humans","Longitudinal Studies","Male","Middle Aged","Sleep","Time Factors","Prevalence","Cognitive Dysfunction"],"keywords":["Depression (economics)","Association (psychology)","Cognition","Sleep (system call)","Multimorbidity","Duration (music)","Medicine","Clinical psychology","Gerontology","Comorbidity","Psychiatry","Psychology","Computer science","Depression","Chronic disease","Cognitive function","Nighttime Sleep Duration"],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-07T20:04:07.541738Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}