Social and Biological Influences of Sleep in ADRD Spousal Caregivers - ABSTRACT The parent project aims to understand how social isolation and loneliness affect caregiver burden and the momentary role of loneliness in physical health outcomes, as well as identify temporal targets for intervention based on momentary loneliness in ADRD spousal caregivers. We will examine how vagally mediated HRV impacts mental and physical well-being in ADRD spousal caregivers as an exploratory aim. Three Hundred ADRD spousal caregivers will complete assessments on attachment, quality of life, caregiver burden, grief symptoms and participate in a blood draw to evaluate inflammation and indices of cellular aging (i.e., mitochondrial and glycolytic function). These caregivers will also complete momentary assessments of depressive affect, loneliness, and social isolation, and we will continually measure vagally mediated HRV over two weeks. Based on Houston’s demographics and the recruitment approach in our parent grant, we plan to enroll 150 Latinos. This study plans to investigate sleep health in ADRD spousal caregivers, considering social and biological factors. There is a recognized disparity in sleep health between ADRD caregivers and non-caregivers, with evidence suggesting that poor quality sleep is associated with reduced cognitive and physical functioning and increased risk for physical and psychological morbidity in this group. Poor sleep quality has also been associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and cellular aging processes. Chronic stress from childhood economic disadvantage has been linked to dysregulated biological and psychological stress and sleep processes, and poorer physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood. We predict that caregivers with poorer sleep quality will present with increased mitochondrial dysfunction and poorer self-reported health. We also predict that spousal caregivers who report lower childhood SES will report poorer sleep quality than spousal caregivers with higher childhood SES. For our exploratory aim, we predict that for caregivers who report lower childhood SES, the relationships between poorer sleep quality, mitochondrial dysfunction, and poorer self-reported health will be stronger than for caregivers with higher childhood SES. Investigating the role of sleep health in cellular function and overall self-reported health can help to inform interventions to improve caregivers’ sleep, wellbeing, and disease outcomes. Also, recognizing disparities based on childhood socioeconomic status can help to identify caregivers who may be at increased risk for health impacts as a result of the caregiving experience.
