Sleep duration and quality with incident slow gait in Chinese older adults over 4 years
In CHARLS data, short nocturnal sleep was associated with higher odds of incident slow gait over 4 years; long sleep and poor sleep quality showed no significant association. This is an association, not proof of cause. [1]
Automatic summary · not editorially reviewed
The key findings
The analysis used CHARLS 2011 baseline and 2015 follow-up data on Chinese community-dwelling adults aged 60 or older with normal gait speed at baseline. [1]
Of 3,195 participants, 441 (13.8%) developed incident slow gait over 4 years. [1]
Short sleep was associated with higher odds of incident slow gait (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.01–1.55), while long sleep and poor sleep quality showed no significant association. [1]
The source at a glance
- Study type / format
- Longitudinal observational cohort analysis (abstract)
- Population / context
- Chinese community-dwelling adults aged 60 or older with normal gait speed at baseline in CHARLS.
- Summary based on
- Study abstract
- Publication status
- Preprint · peer-review status not confirmed
- Original publication
- September 2, 2026
CHARLS cohort: sleep and gait in adults 60+
The study used the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), comparing the 2011 baseline with the 2015 follow-up. Included were community-dwelling Chinese adults aged 60 or older who had normal gait speed at baseline. Nocturnal sleep duration was grouped as short, normal or long, and sleep quality was self-reported as good/fair or poor. The outcome was incident slow gait, defined as gait speed at follow-up falling below one sex- and age-group-specific standard deviation of the mean.
Supporting source [1]
Short sleep linked to slow gait; long sleep not
Of 3,195 participants, 441 (13.8%) developed incident slow gait over 4 years. In the fully adjusted model, short sleep was associated with higher odds of incident slow gait than normal sleep duration (odds ratio 1.25, 95% confidence interval 1.01–1.55, P = 0.044). Long sleep duration and poor sleep quality showed no significant association with incident slow gait in the fully adjusted model. Subgroup analyses found no significant effect modification by sex, age, education, marital status or residence.
Supporting source [1]
Abstract-only scope of the sleep–gait association
This is a longitudinal observational analysis, so the reported associations do not establish that short sleep causes slow gait. The abstract reports the design, sample, 4-year follow-up, outcome definition and adjusted models, but not details such as how sleep was measured beyond self-report or how missing data were handled. The full text was not reviewed.
Supporting source [1]
How to interpret this
Abstract only; the full text was not reviewed. This is an observational longitudinal analysis, so associations are not causal. Sleep duration and quality were self-reported, and the abstract gives no further measurement or missing-data details.
Based on the study abstract; the full paper, tables and supplementary data were not reviewed.
Source & supporting passages
Kong Q, Li J, Lan L, Wang Z, Zhou X, Zhang Y, Xie Y, Yu Z, Huang H, Luo X. · europepmc.org · September 2, 2026