Sleep History and Hypertension Burden in First-Generation Chinese Migrants Settled in Italy

Migration flows from China are largely directed towards the South of Europe, Chinese being now the third largest overseas-born population in Italy. The aim of the study was to investigate hypertension burden and self-reported sleep disorders among 1608 first-generation Chinese migrants aged 16 to 59 years settled in Prato and recruited in a cross-sectional survey. Hypertension was defined as systolic BP ≥ 140 mm Hg and/or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mm Hg or self-reported antihypertensive treatment; potential impact of sleep disorders was analyzed by logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, marital status, education, health insurance, current smoking, parental hypertension, alcohol drinking, overweight or obesity, central obesity, diabetes, high total cholesterol, and high triglycerides. Among the 1608 participants, 21.7% were hypertensive (age-standardized prevalence 19.2%; 95% Cl: 18.5-20.0); 54% of hypertensive subjects were aware of their condition; 70% of aware hypertensive subjects received drugs, and 39% of treated subjects had blood pressure controlled. Self-reported snoring increased the risk of hypertension; when compared with no snoring, the age- and sex-adjusted OR for hypertension of snoring 3 to 6 d/week was 2.11 (95% Cl: 1.48-3.01) and 2.48 (95% Cl: 1.79-3.46) of snoring every day. When compared with a sleep duration ≤ 5 hours, subjects with sleep duration of 7 hours had reduced risk of high triglycerides (adjusted OR: 0.66; 95% Cl: 0.43-0.95).Despite a high level of awareness, low treatment rates for hypertension were observed among Chinese participants, independently of health insurance. Sleep history is to be considered in screening and prevention programs.