Psychological stress and sleep duration as determinants of health

range of diseases. High stress levels are directly and indirectly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and sleep duration is a novel risk factor for cardiovascular disease where both short and long sleep duration are associated with cardiovascular outcomes. Studies suggest that individual susceptibility may be an important factor for the association between psychological/behavioural factors and health outcomes.
Individual susceptibility to health outcomes secondary to high psychological stress or short and long sleep duration may in turn be dependent on genetic and biological factors. The aim of this PhD project is to investigate, using a large general population cohort (the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study (MDC)), the associations between the respective exposures of psychological stress and sleep duration and coronary heart disease. We will further investigate if any found association is modified by individual susceptibility to disease, i.e. genetic or biological factors. The results of the study will increase the current knowledge on the importance of psychological/behavioural factors on health outcomes and possibly define specific population subgroups which will benefit from behavioural interventions.