Examination of Sleep and Obesity in Children and Adolescents in the United States

Abstract

Purpose: This study contributes to the growing literature on the association between sleep and obesity by examining the associations between hours of sleep, consistency of bedtime, and obesity among children in the US. Design: Analysis of a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized children from the 2016-17 National Survey of Children’s Health. Setting: US, national. Subjects: Children ages 10-17 years (n = 34,640) Measures: Parent reported weeknight average hours of sleep and consistency of bedtime. Body mass index classified as underweight, normal, overweight or obesity using parent-reported child height and weight information, classified using CDC BMI-for-Age Growth Charts. Analysis: Multivariate logistic regression models were used to estimate associations between measures of sleep and body mass index weight category adjusting for individual, household and neighborhood characteristics. Results: An additional hour of sleep was associated with 10.8% lower odds of obesity, net of consistency in bedtime. After controlling for sleep duration, children who usually went to bed at the same time on weeknights had lower odds of obesity (24.8%) relative to children who always went to bed at the same time. Conclusion: Sleep duration is predictive of lower odds of obesity in US children and adolescents. Some variability in weeknight bedtime is associated with lower odds of obesity, though there were no additional benefits to extensive variability in bedtime.