Adequate sleep duration among children and adolescents: a review of the Brazil's Report Card

Abstract

abstract – This study aimed to summarize existing research examining the prevalence of adequate sleep duration or meeting sleep recommendations among Brazilian children and adolescents. A systematic review was conducted on eight databases. The criteria for inclusion were original research, samples including Brazilian children and adolescents (age 0–18), studies that reported variables regarding sleep duration using both objective or subjective measures, school- or population-based surveys with random sampling, and cross-sectional or cohort studies. Of the 54 articles included, only 27 used data from different studies. Most of the studies were conducted in the southern region (n = 17) with only two studies having a nationally representative sample. Two studies included children below age five, and the age group most investigated was adolescents (>10 years old). A majority of the studies used a self-reported questionnaire and showed variability in the cutoff point applied for adequate sleep duration with the most reported being ≥8 hours. The proportion of adolescents who met recommendations or had adequate sleep duration ranged from 15% to 89%. Among children, the prevalence ranged from 17% to 95%. The least variability was observed among toddlers, ranging from 93% to 95%. No consistent gender differences were observed among the gender-stratified groups of children and adolescents across the studies. It can be observed that, because of the wide range of results and the lack of data with national representativeness, the prevalence of sufficient sleep among young people aged below 18 remains undefined in Brazil.