Link Between Childhood obesity, Lack of Sleep and Breathing Issues

With respect to a new research released in The Journal of Pediatrics, two correctable sleep conditions – chronic lack of sleep and sleep-related breathing issues – each dual the possibility of a child being obese by 15 years of age.

Prof. Karen Bonuck – led investigator, states that lack of sleep “has turn out to be a well-identified threat for childhood obesity.”

She provides that sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is also a threat factor for obesity and contains snoring and sleep apnea.

“These two risk factors had not been supervised collectively in kids over time to identify their potential for independently impacting weight gain,” she says, which is why she and her co-workers performed their recent research.

With respect to CDC, while in the past 3 decades, childhood obesity has greater than doubled in kids and quadrupled in teenagers in the US.

In 2012, over 33% of kids and adolescents were overweight or obese, rising challenges for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, to name just a few.

Understanding good sleep habits essential to healthy and extended sleep

For their research, the investigators used data on almost 2,000 kids who were part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), which monitored kids for 15 years in Avon in the UK.

The research comprised questionnaire data from parents concerning child sleep length and SDB symptoms from birth through 6.75 years, and it also used kid BMI data from study ALSPAC clinics.

Outcomes revealed that kids with the very serious cases of SDB had the higher obesity risks; in comparison with the asymptomatic group of children, they were two times as likely to turn into obese by ages 7, 10 and 15.

Though children whose SDB peaked at age groups 5-6 turned out a little bit better, they continue to had a 60-80% enhanced risk of becoming obese.

The investigators note that obesity was described as having a body mass index (BMI) higher than the 95th percentile for age and gender, as put down by the International Obesity Task Force.

A different finding from the research was that kids with the shortest sleep time at ages 5-6 also had a 60-100% enhanced threat of being obese at age 15. Remarkably, however, kids with a short sleep duration at other ages did not encounter an increase in danger.

Kids with short sleep length were described as those who slept less than 90% of their peers. In kids aged 5-6, for instance, this was 10.5 hours or less per night.

“Understanding good sleep habits and proper rest hygiene can enhance healthy sleep and longer sleep length,” says Prof. Bonuck, who notes that shortage of adequate sleep impacts around 25-50% of kids.

‘Important for parents, doctors to determine sleep issues early’

Though SDB and absence of sleep were both strong obesity risk aspects, the team notices that their results are independent of each other. After looking for connections among short sleep duration and SDB throughout all age groups, the investigators identified little proof that kids with one risk factor were more probably to be impacted by the other.

Luckily, both of these risk aspects are changeable; a common cause of SDB is increased tonsils or adenoids, which can be eliminated via surgery, and parents can promote good sleep behavior to prolong sleep length.

“We know that the road to obesity usually starts early in life,” says Prof. Bonuck. “Our study strengthens the case that inadequate sleep and SDB – particularly when present early in childhood – raise the threat for becoming obese later in childhood.”

She adds:

“If impaired sleep in childhood is effectively proven to trigger future obesity, it may be important for parents and doctors to recognize sleep problems earlier, so that corrective steps can be used and obesity stopped. With childhood obesity hovering at 16% in the US, we are optimistic that initiatives to address both of these risk aspects could have a incredible public health impact.”

Though the study used a huge sample size around a long period of time, it did not evaluate whether kids impacted by both risk aspects were at higher risk for obesity than kids with just one risk aspect, which could be a limitation.