| Title: | The relationship between healthy sleep patterns and the risk of scoliosis: a large prospective cohort study |
| Journal: | Frontiers in Neuroscience |
| Published: | 17 Jun 2026 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42388672/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2026.1839503 |
| URL: | https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2026.1839503/pdf |
Publication 20721
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Abstract
Background: Currently, prospective evidence on how sleep habits specifically affect scoliosis is nearly nonexistent. We therefore sought to clarify the association between comprehensive sleep behavior patterns and the incidence of this disease.</p>
Methods: This study conducted a prospective cohort study based on the UK Biobank (UKB), including 408,870 participants who did not have scoliosis at baseline. We have constructed a comprehensive sleep scoring system that integrates the following five key indicators: sleep chronotype, sleep duration, insomnia, snoring, and daytime sleepiness. To evaluate the association between healthy sleep patterns and the risk of scoliosis, we conducted a statistical analysis using the Cox proportional hazards regression model.</p>
Results: Over a mean follow-up of 15.82 years, 2,976 incident cases of scoliosis were recorded (0.73%). The 408,870 participants who were free of scoliosis at baseline had a mean age of 56.48 years. Distribution of the healthy sleep score was as follows: 9,939 participants (2.43%) had 0-1 of the five healthy sleep behaviors, 46,175 (11.29%) had 2 behaviors, 115,094 (28.15%) had 3 behaviors, 150,287 (36.76%) had 4 behaviors, and 87,375 (21.37%) had all five. In multivariable models, each 1-point increase in the healthy sleep score was associated with a 10% lower risk of scoliosis [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.90; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.87, 0.93]. Compared with the 0-1 score group, the multivariable-adjusted HR (95% CI) for participants with a score of 5 was 0.64 (0.52, 0.80). In subgroup analyses, the inverse association between sleep score and scoliosis risk persisted among participants without diabetes but was absent among those with diabetes (p interaction < 0.05).</p>
Conclusion: Cohort analysis results confirm that adherence to a healthy sleep-behavior pattern significantly reduces the risk of scoliosis.</p>
8 Authors
- Wanyue Li
- Shuxiao Ma
- Mei Hu
- Yanzhao Hao
- Ying Li
- Xiguo Cai
- Weisheng Zhuang
- Ruihua Sun
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