Examining the Relation Between Sleep Disturbance and Depression as Moderated by Diabetes and Age

Sleep disturbance and depression are risk factors for each other and bidirectionally influence one another, and research has yet to explore diabetes and age as moderators of the relationship between depression and sleep disturbance. The current study used data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2018 wave to conduct two hierarchical regressions with moderators (i.e., age and diabetes status). Socioeconomic factors and other health indices were included as covariates in each regression. While relatively younger age and diabetes directly accounted for 2% of depression variance (R2 = 0.10, F(13, 14,456) = 125.05, p < .001) and 2% of sleep disturbance variance (R2 = 0.09, F(13, 14,456) = 109.63, p < .001), their moderated effects accounted for less than 1% of the total variance of depression (R2 = 0.24, F(14, 14,455) = 287.71, p < .001) and sleep disturbance (R2 = 0.23, F(14, 14,455) = 271.22, p < .001). Rather, sleep disturbance and depression equally and moderately contributed to variance among outcome variables (predicted depression [R2 = 0.24, F(14, 14,455) = 325.60, p < .001; β = 0.36, p < .001]; predicted sleep disturbance [R2 = 0.23, F(14, 14,455) = 308.67, p < .001; β = 0.42, p < .001). Results of the present study suggest that, although younger age and diabetes are associated with sleep disturbance and depression at the population level, comorbid sleep problems and depression are highly interrelated regardless of age or diabetes status.