Sleep health is an essential component to overall health. Because of numerous societal, economic, and biological factors, obtaining adequate sleep poses a unique challenge to aging women. Yet, women have been traditionally understudied in sleep research. An increasing body of research supports abnormal sleep duration as a risk factor for obesity, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. This review focuses specifically on 3 areas of the discussion of insufficient sleep in women: (1) the mysterious poor health of long sleepers, (2) the potential underlying mechanisms linking abnormal sleep duration and cardiometabolic health, and (3) the need to investigate multiple levels of social determinants driving sleep disparities.

Environmental justice (EJ) efforts aimed at capacity building are essential to addressing environmental health disparities; however, limited attention has been given to describing these efforts. This study reports findings from a scoping review of community-academic partnerships and community-led efforts to address environmental inequities related to air, water, and land pollution in the United States. Literature published in peer-reviewed journals from January 1986 through March 2018 were included, and community capacity theory was applied as a framework for understanding the scope of capacity-building and community change strategies to address EJ concerns. Paired teams of independent analysts conducted a search for relevant articles (n = 8452 citations identified), filtered records for content abstraction and possible inclusion (n = 163) and characterized selected studies (n = 58). Most articles implemented activities that were aligned with community capacity dimensions of citizen participation (96.4%, n = 53), community power (78%, n = 45), leadership (78%, n = 45), and networks (81%, n = 47); few articles identified a direct policy change (22%, n = 13), and many articles discussed the policy implications of findings for future work (62%, n = 36). This review synthesizes three decades of efforts to reduce environmental inequities and identifies strategic approaches used for strengthening community capacity.

To investigate cross-sectional associations of neighborhood social environment (social cohesion, safety) with objective measures of sleep duration, timing and disturbances.A racially/ethnically diverse population of men and women (N=1949) aged 54-93 participating in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis Sleep and Neighborhood Ancillary studies. Participants underwent 1-week actigraphy between 2010 and 2013. Measures of sleep duration, timing and disruption were averaged over all days. Neighborhood characteristics were assessed via questionnaires administered to participants and an independent sample within the same neighborhood and aggregated at the neighborhood (census tract, N=783) level using empirical Bayes estimation. Multilevel linear regression models were used to assess the association between the neighborhood social environment and each sleep outcome.Neighborhood social environment characterized by higher levels of social cohesion and safety were associated with longer sleep duration and earlier sleep midpoint. Each 1 standard deviation higher neighborhood social environment score was associated with 6.1 minutes longer (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 2.0, 10.2) sleep duration and 6.4 minutes earlier (CI: 2.2, 10.6) sleep midpoint after adjustment for age, sex, race, socioeconomic status and marital status. These associations persisted after adjustment for other risk factors. Neighborhood social factors were not associated with sleep efficiency or sleep fragmentation index.A more favorable neighborhood social environment is associated with longer objectively measured sleep duration and earlier sleep timing. Intervening on the neighborhood environment may improve sleep and subsequent health outcomes.

Using web-based survey data collected June - August 2018 from the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) members, we characterized numerous dimensions of social identity and lived experience, and assessed relationships between these characteristics and perceptions of inclusion and society participation. We quantified associations between characteristics, feeling very welcomed, high (top 25th percentile) self-initiated participation, and any (top 10th percentile) society-initiated participation. Racial/ethnic and religious minority categories were blinded to preserve anonymity and we accounted for missing data. Most 2018 SER members (n = 1631) were white (62%) or female (66%). Females with racial/ethnic non-response were least likely, while white males were most likely to report feeling very welcomed. Members who did not report race, identified with a specific racial/ethnic minority, or were politically conservative/right-leaning were less likely than white or liberal/left-leaning members to have high self-initiated participation. Women and individuals of a specific racial/ethnic minority or minority religious affiliations were less likely to participate in events initiated by the society. These data represent a baseline for assessing trends and the impact of future initiatives aimed at improving diversity, inclusion, representation and participation within SER.

We sought to determine which facets of sleep neurophysiology were most strongly linked to cognitive performance in 3,819 older adults from two independent cohorts, using whole-night electroencephalography. From over 150 objective sleep metrics, we identified 23 that predicted cognitive performance, and processing speed in particular, with effects that were broadly independent of gross changes in sleep quality and quantity. These metrics included rapid eye movement duration, features of the electroencephalography power spectra derived from multivariate analysis, and spindle and slow oscillation morphology and coupling. These metrics were further embedded within broader associative networks linking sleep with aging and cardiometabolic disease: individuals who, compared with similarly aged peers, had better cognitive performance tended to have profiles of sleep metrics more often seen in younger, healthier individuals. Taken together, our results point to multiple facets of sleep neurophysiology that track coherently with underlying, age-dependent determinants of cognitive and physical health trajectories in older adults.

"The mission of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee (D&I) in the Society for Epidemiologic Research is to foster the diversity of our membership and work towards the engagement of all members, from diverse backgrounds at all stages of their careers, in the Society's activities, with the intent of enhancing discovery in public health." As a foundational step in implementing our mission, the D&I Committee conducted a survey of SER membership. Here we report on the efforts we have undertaken to expand the diversity and inclusiveness of our Society and our aspirations for future efforts in support of D&I. Early on, we established the SERvisits program to conduct outreach to institutions and students that have historically been underrepresented at SER; we hope this program continues to grow in its reach and impact. We have also taken steps to increase the inclusiveness of SER activities, for example, by engaging members on issues of D&I through symposia and workshops at SER annual meetings and through social media. DeVilbiss et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2020;189(10):998-1010) have demonstrated that there is substantial room for improvement with regards to diversity and inclusion within SER. We invite SER members to become involved and collaborate on this long-term goal.