Inverse relationship between long sleep duration and childhood overweight/obesity
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Sleep duration was previously found to inversely relate to obesity both in childhood and adulthood. This cross-sectional study of 4511 Portuguese children aged 7-9 years was conducted to assess the association between short sleep duration and overweight/obesity and body fat (BF). The prevalence of both overweight/obesity and percent BF decreased with increasing sleep duration. Furthermore, children of parents with a low educational level slept less time than those of parents with a higher educational level. Children who spent more time watching television slept less time than those watching less television; and children engaged in physical activity slept more time than sedentary children. In conclusion, there appears to exist an inverse relationship between longer sleep duration and prevalence of overweight/obesity as well as body fat. These findings may be important as inadequate sleep duration is a potentially modifiable risk factor that could be targeted in the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity.
Abstract
