Sleep Duration and Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) Associated with Obesity and Type II Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) among Taiwanese Middle-Aged Public Servants

Abstract

(1) Limited evidence has shown the mediating effects of work characteristics and sleep duration on obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among adults. The objective of this study is to assess the interaction effects between sleep duration and effort–reward imbalance (ERI) on the risk of obesity and T2DM among Taiwanese public servants aged 40–60. (2) A national survey for Taiwanese public servants was conducted by multistage stratified random cluster sampling based on proportional probabilistic sampling. A total of 11,875 participants aged 40–60 years old were collected; (3) 3.6% of participants had self-reporting T2DM diagnosed by a physician and the prevalence of overweight and obesity were 44.0% and 15.8%, respectively. There was a significant correlation between sleep hours for the workday and risk of T2DM in non-obese and obese groups (odds ratio, OR = 1.48 and 1.39, respectively), but this did not exist for the weekend/vacation group. Similar trends in the two groups by sleep hours on a workday, obesity and overweight were significantly associated with the risks of T2DM. Clearly, sleep duration and ERI were moderating factors on the association between BMI and on the prevalence of T2DM. (4) A short sleep duration and heavy job stress contributes to the risk of weight gain and T2DM development.