24-hour urinary potassium excretion is negatively associated with self-reported sleep quality in the general population, independently of sleep-disordered breathing

Study Objectives: To investigate the association of 24-hour urinary potassium excretion with self-reported sleep quality in the general population.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a population of patients aged 18 years or older was randomly selected from Xinjiang, China in 2019, 24-hour urine samples collected, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaires assessed. Participants were divided into 2 groups (upper and lower median of 24-hour urinary potassium excretion). Poor sleep quality was defined as PSQI global score & GE; 6. Associations between 24-hour urinary potassium excretion and [24.8 mmol/L] sleep quality were assessed by multiple logistic regression analysis in total participants and those stratified by sex.Results: In total, 24-hour urine samples were collected from 1,147 participants, of whom data for those with complete urine samples and PSQI data were analyzed (n = 727; mean age = 48.7 years; percentage of women = 62%). Compared with the upper median group for 24-hour urinary potassium excretion, the lower median group showed a significantly higher PSQI global score (6 vs 5, P = .011), and prevalence of poor sleep quality (51.7% vs 42.2%, P = .011). In a fully-adjusted model of multivariate logistic regression, the lower median group showed 1.50-fold increased odds for presence of poor sleep quality (95% confidence interval: 1.01-2.24, P = .045). Sex-specific analyses translated these results to women, but not to men.Conclusions: These results suggest that low potassium intake, indicated by lower potassium excretion, is associated with poor sleep quality in the general population, especially among women. Therefore, additional research is necessary to clarify the effect of increasing potassium intake to improve sleep quality.Keywords: potassium intake, 24-hour urinary potassium excretion, subjective sleep quality, general populationCitation: Li M, Heizhati M, Wang L, et al. 24-hour urinary potassium excretion is negatively associated with self-reported sleep quality in the general population, independently of sleep-disordered breathing. J Clin Sleep Med. 2022;18(11):2589-2596.