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Whites, Hispanics more at risk than African Americans

May 1, 2009

Getting fewer than seven hours of sleep a night puts people at risk for Type 2 diabetes, according to a study by researchers at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health.

The study is the first to examine the role that measures of insulin sensitivity and acute insulin response – important diabetes risk factors – have on the sleep-diabetes relationships. Insulin, a hormone, is responsible for moving sugar from the bloodstream into the body’s cells. Insulin resistance becomes a risk factor for diabetes because the body’s cells have a diminished capacity to respond to insulin.

Even when the researchers adjusted for insulin-related factors – in addition to obesity and family history of diabetes which are well-known risk factors for diabetes -- short sleep was found to be an independent predictor for Type 2 diabetes.

The Arnold School study found that insulin sensitivity and acute insulin response do not appear to impact short sleep and diabetes risk, said Dr. Angela Liese, Arnold School researcher and associate professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics.

“Whites and Hispanics who get short sleep were found to have a greater risk for developing Type 2 diabetes than African Americans,” said Liese. “Some studies have suggested that short sleep is not a risk factor for diabetes. This study shows that it does.”

The study’s results are published in the May issue of the Annals of Epidemiology.

Working with Liese’s research team, Debbie Beihl, the paper’s lead author and a student at Southern Adventist University, analyzed five years of data from the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study. Among the 900 diabetes-free participants, who ranged in age from 40 – 69 at the beginning of the study, 146 developed Type 2 diabetes.

 “Our study adds to the growing body of research on the role that sleep has on diabetes,” Beihl said. “More research is needed among minority populations.”

Visit http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10472797 to learn more about the study and http://www.sph.sc.edu for information on the Arnold School of Public Health.

      

Early plaudits for Saluda County scholar

At a time when most of her peers are publishing on Facebook, 19-year-old Debbie Beihl is publishing a research paper in the May issue of the Annals of Epidemiology.

A nursing/biology/premed student at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tenn., Debbie is the lead author of a paper that connects lack of sleep to development of Type 2 diabetes in adults.

 “I hope that this study will encourage people to actually sleep enough and take care of their health,” Debbie said.

Working under the direction of Arnold School researcher Dr. Angela Liese, Debbie started the project while she was still being homeschooled in her hometown of Saluda.

Her parents, Gary and Penny Beihl, homeschooled Debbie and her brothers, David and Thomas, through high school.  All of the siblings attend Southern Adventist.

Debbie’s scholarship was recognized at the Arnold School’s 2007 Hooding ceremony when she was identified as a regional finalist in the Young Epidemiology Scholars (YES) research and scholarship competition.

Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the College Board, the YES program offers 120 high school students scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $50,000 each year for health research.

Debbie is near the top of her class at Southern Adventist, a small private school affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Penny Beihl said.

“Her goal is to go to medical school when she graduates,” said her mother, who has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education.

Debbie has longtime, close ties with USC, where she will return for a physics class this summer. She also has played violin and piano with the SC Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

Debbie and her brothers, David and Thomas, also are geography scholars.  David became the first homeschooled student to win the National Geography Bee in 1999, after winning the South Carolina state title the year before. Thomas was the state winner in 2001. Then Debbie won the state level in 2002 and 2003.

The family lives in the countryside outside Saluda where the family moved from Texas in 1994.  Father Gary is an electrical engineer at Intel in Columbia.