Insufficient amounts of nighttime sleep among infants and preschool-aged children may be a significant risk factor for developing childhood obesity, according to a new study. The research also found that napping does not appear to be an adequate substitute for nighttime sleep in terms of preventing obesity.
Using existing national, longitudinal and panel survey data collected for children and adolescents, doctors in the United States studied 1,930 children aged 0 to 13 years, with data collected on the same children in 1997 and again in 2002.
For the purposes of the study, children were separated into a ‘younger’ group – of newborn to five years of age – and an ‘older’ group – of five years of age to 13 years. The authors reported that after five years, 33 per cent of the younger group and 36 per cent of the older group were overweight or obese.
For the younger children, short duration of nighttime sleep at baseline was associated with an increased risk of subsequent overweight or obesity.
In the older age group, baseline sleep was not associated with subsequent weight status. However, contemporaneous sleep was associated with increased odds of a shift from normal weight to overweight or from overweight to obesity at follow-up. Additionally, in the older group, nighttime sleep at follow-up was associated with marginally increased odds of obesity at follow-up, while sleep duration five years prior had no meaningful effect.
According to the authors, these findings suggest that there is a “critical window” prior to the age of five years, when nighttime sleep may be important for subsequent obesity status.
“Sleep duration is a modifiable risk factor with potentially important implications for obesity prevention and treatment,” the authors concluded. “Insufficient nighttime sleep among infants and preschool-aged children appears to be a lasting risk factor for subsequent obesity, while contemporaneous sleep appears to be important to weight status in adolescents.”
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 2010;164:840-845
About admin
Loading ...
