Aims: To quantify the arousal burden (AB) across large cohort studies and determine its association with long-term cardiovascular (CV) and overall mortality in men and women.

Methods and results: We measured the AB on overnight polysomnograms of 2782 men in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS) Sleep study, 424 women in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) and 2221 men and 2574 women in the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS). During 11.2 +/- 2.1 years of follow-up in MrOS, 665 men died, including 236 CV deaths. During 6.4 +/- 1.6 years of follow-up in SOF, 105 women died, including 47 CV deaths. During 10.7 +/- 3.1 years of follow-up in SHHS, 987 participants died, including 344 CV deaths. In women, multivariable Cox proportional hazard analysis adjusted for common confounders demonstrated that AB is associated with all-cause mortality [SOF: hazard ratio (HR) 1.58 (1.01-2.42), P = 0.038; SHHS-women: HR 1.21 (1.06-1.42), P = 0.012] and CV mortality [SOF: HR 2.17 (1.04-4.50), P = 0.037; SHHS-women: HR 1.60 (1.12-2.28), P = 0.009]. In men, the association between AB and all-cause mortality [MrOS: HR 1.11 (0.94-1.32), P = 0.261; SHHS-men: HR 1.31 (1.06-1.62), P = 0.011] and CV mortality [MrOS: HR 1.35 (1.02-1.79), P = 0.034; SHHS-men: HR 1.24 (0.86-1.79), P = 0.271] was less clear.

Conclusions: Nocturnal AB is associated with long-term CV and all-cause mortality in women and to a lesser extent in men.

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