Association between lack of sexual interest and all-cause mortality in a Japanese general population: The Yamagata prospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Sexual interest is essential for maintaining positive sexual relationships and sexual function, which have recently been recognized as important indicators of good health and quality of life. Here, we prospectively investigated associations between sexual interest and mortality in a community-based population. METHODS: This study enrolled 20,969 subjects (8,558 males and 12,411 females) aged ≥ 40 years who participated in annual health check-ups in Yamagata Prefecture. Sexual interest was assessed by a self-report questionnaire. Associations between sexual interest and increased all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality, and cancer mortality were investigated by Cox proportional hazards modeling. RESULTS: During follow-up (median: 7.1 years), 503 subjects died; 67 deaths were due to cardiovascular disease, and 162 were due to cancer. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that all-cause mortality and cancer mortality were significantly elevated among men who lacked sexual interest (log-rank P<0.0001, P<0.05). Cox proportional hazards model analysis with adjustment for age, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, smoking, alcohol drinking status, BMI, education, marital status, frequency of laughter, and psychological distress showed that the risk of all-cause mortality was significantly higher among men who lacked sexual interest than men who had sexual interest (hazard ratio [HR] 1.69; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.17-2.44). CONCLUSION: Lack of sexual interest is suggested to be a risk factor for all-cause mortality in Japanese males over 40 years old. This finding has implications for the importance of sexual interest in increasing longevity in this population.

Circadian Clock Gene Polymorphisms and Sleep-Onset Problems in a Population-Based Cohort Study: The Yamagata Study.

A number of genome-wide association studies have investigated sleep phenotypes and disorders in humans. However, the contribution of genetic variation to sleep problems in Japanese populations has remained unclear. Sleep-onset problems are the most common symptom of insomnia. Here, we examined the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of BMAL1 (ARNTL1), CLOCK, CRY1, CRY2, and PER2, which are genes involved in the clock mechanism, and sleep-onset problems in a Japanese general population. This study included 1,397 subjects aged ≥ 40 years who participated in an annual health check-up in Yamagata Prefecture. A total of 80 SNPs of 5 circadian clock genes were analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression analyses identified variant rs11113179 in CRY1 and variants rs1026071 and rs1562438 in BMAL1 as genetic risk factors for sleep induction disorder. These findings suggest that CRY1 and BMAL1 polymorphisms are related to sleep-onset problems in a Japanese general population. However, none of the SNPs remained significant at a stringent level of multiple correction.