Gene‒environment interaction effect of hypothalamic‒pituitary‒adrenal axis gene polymorphisms and job stress on the risk of sleep disturbances.

Background: Studies have shown that chronic exposure to job stress may increase the risk of sleep disturbances and that hypothalamic‒pituitary‒adrenal (HPA) axis gene polymorphisms may play an important role in the psychopathologic mechanisms of sleep disturbances. However, the interactions among job stress, gene polymorphisms and sleep disturbances have not been examined from the perspective of the HPA axis. This study aimed to know whether job stress is a risk factor for sleep disturbances and to further explore the effect of the HPA axis gene × job stress interaction on sleep disturbances among railway workers. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 671 participants (363 males and 308 females) from the China Railway Fuzhou Branch were included. Sleep disturbances were evaluated with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and job stress was measured with the Effort-Reward Imbalance scale (ERI). Generalized multivariate dimensionality reduction (GMDR) models were used to assess gene‒environment interactions. Results: We found a significant positive correlation between job stress and sleep disturbances ( Conclusions: Individuals carrying risk alleles who experience job stress may be at increased risk of sleep disturbances. These findings may provide new insights into stress-related sleep disturbances in occupational populations.