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Purpose: To determine the association between sleep duration and depressive symptoms in a rural setting. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from Wave 3 of the Walk the Ozarks to Wellness Project including 12 rural communities in Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee (N = 1,204). Sleep duration was defined based on average weeknight and weekend hours per day: short (less than 7), optimal (7-8), and long (greater than 8). The primary outcome was self-reported elevated depressive symptoms. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted prevalence odds ratios (aPOR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Findings: Elevated depressive symptoms were common in this rural population (17%). Depressive symptoms were more prevalent among subjects with short (26.1%) and long (24%) sleep duration compared to those with optimal (11.8%) sleep duration. After adjusting for age, gender, race, education, employment status, income, and BMI, short sleep duration was associated with increased odds of elevated depressive symptoms (aPOR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.49, 3.01), compared to optimal sleep duration. Conversely, the association between long sleep duration and depressive symptoms was not statistically significant after covariate adjustment. Similar findings were observed when we excluded individuals with insomnia symptoms for analysis. Conclusions: This study suggests that short sleep duration (less than 7 hours per night) and depressive symptoms are common among rural populations. Short sleep duration is positively associated with elevated depressive symptoms. The economic and health care burden of depression may be more overwhelming among rural populations, necessitating the need to target modifiable behaviors such as sleep habits to improve mental health.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine whether physical activity is associated with less insomnia symptoms in the rural communities. Methods This study used cross-sectional data collected from a 2005 telephone survey for evaluation of a community walking trails intervention to promote physical activity in rural communities including 6 communities in the Missouri Ozark region and 6 communities in Arkansas and Tennessee ( n = 1,234). The exposure variable is self-reported regular current physical activity. The outcome includes symptoms of insomnia operationalized as having trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking up too early nearly every day. Logistic regression was used to calculate prevalence odds ratios (PORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Findings The study sample includes mostly white (95%), married (62%), overweight/obese (61%) women with a high school degree and a mean age of 54. Fourteen percent of participants reported having insomnia symptoms. Self-report of currently being physically active regularly was associated with decreased odds of insomnia symptoms (adjusted POR: .37; 95% CI, 0.14−0.99) among participants with under or normal body weight, after controlling for age, gender, education level, marital status, and chronic diseases. There was also a negative linear correlation between the number of days and total minutes of vigorous physical activity and insomnia symptoms. Conclusions In these rural communities, we observed a significant relationship between regular physical activity and decreased insomnia symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]