The association between sleep duration and detailed measures of obesity: A cross sectional analysis in the ADDITION‐PRO study

BACKGROUND: Sleep duration is associated with BMI and waist circumference. However, less is known about whether sleep duration affects different measurements of obesity differently. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between sleep duration and different measures of obesity. METHODS: In this cross‐sectional analysis 1309, Danish, older adults (55% men) completed at least 3 days of wearing a combined accelerometer and heart rate‐monitor for assessing sleep duration (hours/night) within self‐reported usual bedtime. Participants underwent anthropometry and ultrasonography to assess BMI, waist circumference, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, and fat percentage. Linear regression analyses examined the associations between sleep duration and obesity‐related outcomes. RESULTS: Sleep duration was inversely associated with all obesity‐related outcomes, except visceral‐/subcutaneous‐fat‐ratio. After multivariate adjustment the magnitude of associations became stronger and statistically significant for all outcomes except visceral‐/subcutaneous‐fat‐ratio, and subcutaneous fat in women. The associations with BMI and waist circumference demonstrated the strongest associations, when comparing standardized regression coefficients. CONCLUSIONS: Shorter sleep duration were associated with higher obesity across all outcomes except visceral‐/subcutaneous‐fat‐ratio. No specifically salient associations with local or central obesity were observed. Results suggest that poor sleep duration and obesity correlate, however, further research is needed to conclude on beneficial effects of sleep duration regarding health and weight loss.