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Sleep duration and body-weight development during puberty in a Dutch children cohort

International Journal of Obesity volume 34, pages 1508–1514 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background:

Short sleep duration is associated with obesity during childhood and adulthood.

Objective:

The objective of our study was to investigate the relationship between sleep duration and body mass index (BMI) from Tanner stages 1 to 5 in a Dutch children cohort.

Design:

In 98 children, anthropometric measurements and leptin concentrations were measured from age 7 to 16 years; body composition, physical activity (Baecke questionnaire), hours television viewing and self-reported sleep duration were measured yearly from age 12 to 16 years. Moreover, the polymorphisms of the FTO gene (rs9939609) and parental BMI's were determined.

Results:

At Tanner stages 1–5 sex differences were observed in height, body weight, waist circumference, fat mass per squared meter height and leptin concentrations per kg fat mass. Inverse relationships were observed between the change in BMI (kg m–2) and the change in hours of sleep per night (h) from Tanner stages 1 to 4 (r=−0.68, P<0.001), from Tanner stages 2 to 5 (r=−0.35, P<0.05) and from Tanner stages 1 to 5 (r=−0.33, P<0.05). Univariate analysis of variance showed that with progressive Tanner stages, BMI increases and sleep duration decreases in an interrelated way independent of possible confounders (R2=0.38, P<0.02).

Conclusion:

Changes in BMI during puberty were inversely related to changes in sleep duration, independent of possible confounders.

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Acknowledgements

We thank our subjects for their participation in our cohort study. We gratefully thank Loek Wouters and Wendy Sluijsmans for their assistance. FR and SV carried out the study, collected and analyzed the data and wrote the largest part of the paper. WJG wrote the part on pediatric endocrinology. MW and AN supervised FR and SV. Planning, processing the results and writing the paper were done under general supervision by AN and MW. This work was supported by NUTRIM, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Biology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    F Rutters, A G Nieuwenhuizen, S P M Verhoef & M S Westerterp-Plantenga

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Maastricht Academic Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    W J Gerver

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  1. F Rutters
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Correspondence to F Rutters.

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Rutters, F., Gerver, W., Nieuwenhuizen, A. et al. Sleep duration and body-weight development during puberty in a Dutch children cohort. Int J Obes 34, 1508–1514 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2010.161

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