Longitudinal Association between Short Sleep, Body Weight, and Emotional and Learning Problems in Hispanic and Caucasian Children

Children with reduced amounts of childhood sleep assessed by polysomnogram had an increased risk for higher body weight in early adolescence and had higher risk of being anxious or depressed or having learning problems in early adolescents.

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the impact of lower amounts of childhood sleep assessed by polysomnogram on development of obesity, being anxious or depressed, or having learning problems 5 years later. DESIGN: Prospective cohort. PARTICIPANTS: Subjects were 304 community participants from the Tucson Children's Assessment of Sleep Apnea study, aged 6-12 years old at baseline. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Children were classified according to baseline sleep as those who slept ≥ 9 h/night, those who slept > 7.5 to < 9 h/night, and those who slept ≤ 7.5 h/night. Odds of overweight/obese (≥ 85(th) BMI percentile), obese (≥ 95(th) BMI percentile), anxious or depressed, and learning problems at follow-up were assessed according to baseline sleep categories. Children who slept ≤ 7.5 h/night had higher odds of being obese (OR = 3.3, P < 0.05) at follow-up than children who slept ≥ 9 h/night. Borderline significance for overweight/obese (OR = 2.2, P < 0.1), anxious or depressed (OR = 3.3, P < 0.1), and having learning problems (OR = 11.1, P < 0.1) were seen for children who slept ≤ 7.5 h/night as compared to those who slept ≥ 9 h/night. A mean increase in BMI of 1.7 kg/m(2) (P = 0.01) over the 5 years of follow-up was seen for children who slept ≤ 7.5 h/night compared to those who slept ≥ 9 h/night. These relationships did not differ between Hispanic and Caucasian children. CONCLUSIONS: Children with reduced amounts of sleep (≤ 7.5 h/night) had an increased risk for higher body weight in early adolescence. Similarly, children who slept ≤ 7.5 h/night had higher risk of being anxious or depressed or having learning problems in early adolescence.