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Abstract Introduction Burn pits (BPs) have been widely used by the U.S. military for waste disposal. Due to the obviously toxic nature of the BP emissions exposure (BPe) may contribute to diverse adverse health conditions, including sleep apnea. This study aimed to examine the association between self-estimated amount of BPe and objective sleep problems among smoking veterans. Methods Using polysomnography reports in the Veteran Affairs electronic medical records, sleep measures were extracted for 4940 Veterans and active-duty personnel (age 39.7±9.2 y, BMI 29.3±4.6 kg/m2, 16% female, 66% white) registered on the VA/DoD Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry. Objective sleep parameters included Total Sleep Time (TST) and Sleep Efficiency (SE). Cumulative BPe variable was calculated by multiplying the response (in hours) to a question about BPe by number of deployment days, summing across deployments, and categorized into quartiles by ranking. Inverse probability treatment weighing method was used to adjust the imbalances of covariates age, BMI, sex, race, ethnicity, military branch, and duty status between treatment groups. We employed separate weighted logistic regression models to determine the association between cumulative BPe days and sleep outcomes among smoking veterans. Results Current smokers in prolonged BPe quartile predicted higher odds of shorter TST (OR:1.43, 95%CI: 1.08-1.89, p=0.02, with reference to never smokers), whereas no significance shown in SE (OR:0.97, 95%CI: 0.75-1.27, p=0.89). Conclusion Higher levels of self-estimated BPe was associated with shorter objective TST in current smoking veterans. Smoking may exert synergistic effect to BP emission exposure on sleep problems. Further research is needed to define the effects of BP emission exposure on sleep among deployed and non-deployed Veterans. Support (if any) This work is supported by the Department of Veteran Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development, and the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (CIN 13-413), Michael E DeBakey Veteran Affairs Medical Center Bridge Grant, and the VA Airborne Hazards and Burn Pit Center of Excellence Pilot Grant.
Nowakowski et al. (Sat,) studied this question.