Description
The Division of Lung Diseases (DLD) and the Division for the Application of Research Discoveries (DARD), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute convened a workshop in September 2011 to discuss and identify exceptional opportunities for research to significantly reduce disparities in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality coupled to sleep health, and to advance our scientific understanding of the role of sleep in realizing optimal health outcomes. Participants included a diverse group of sleep and health disparity researchers with expertise in cardiovascular and metabolic science. An overarching objective of the workshop was to create an opportunity for synergy between two research disciplines that have not traditionally collaborated, but where overlap in scientific opportunity has emerged. The specific charge to the working group included (1) Identify critical gaps in knowledge that need to be overcome in understanding sleep-related health disparities (2) Identify and prioritize exceptional opportunities for research to fundamentally improve our understanding of sleep-related health disparities (3) Describe strategies and prioritize opportunities for translation, dissemination, and application to reduce sleep-related health disparities (4) Assess the concept of "sleep" as a 'fundamental requirement of daily living' and potential implications for future disparities work.
The 2-day workshop was organized into five sessions (1) 'Sleep and Health Disparities' (overview by Co-Chairs) (2) 'Disparities in Sleep Health' (3) 'Etiology of Disparities in Sleep Health' (4) ‘Contributions of Sleep to Unexplained Health Disparities’ and (5) 'Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleep Disorders in Minority Populations.' Each session contained three components (a) 20- minute presentations of current evidence and proposed research directions by sleep experts (b) 15-minute commentaries by health disparity experts on the relevance of sleep research in health disparity science and (c) a 60-minute discussion to engage the entire working group to identify priority research recommendations. Prior to the workshop, conference calls were held with individual session groups to stimulate communication and the exchange and coordination of information and ideas, in preparation for the workshop.