Association of sleep duration and snack consumption in children and adolescents: The CASPIAN‐V study

OBJECTIVES: The relationship between sleep deprivation and the risk of overweight and obesity is somewhat known in children and adolescents. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sleep duration and eating snacks in a national sample of children and adolescents aged 6–18 years old. METHODS: This cross‐sectional study was carried out on the data of the fifth survey of the national school‐based surveillance system entitled the “Childhood and Adolescence Surveillance and PreventIon of Adult Non‐communicable Disease” (CASPIAN‐V) study. Short sleeping duration was defined 10 hr per day for children under 10 years and 9 hr per day for children ≥ 10 years. To assess food habits, the consumption frequency of some food groups including sweets, salty snacks, carbonated beverages, diet soft drinks, soft beer, fresh fruits, dried fruits, fresh juices, vegetables, packed juices, dairy products (milk, yogurt, and cheese), fast foods, tea, sugar along with tea, and coffee was asked using Likert scale ( never, rarely, weekly, and daily). RESULTS: In multivariate model, short sleep versus long sleep in students was associated with increased chance of eating salty snacks (OR = 1.49 [95% CI: 1.38–1.61]; p = .001), soft drinks (OR = 1.12 [95% CI: 1.04–1.20]; p = .002), fast foods (OR = 1.66 [95% CI: 1.54–1.79]; p < .001), tea (OR = 1.49 [95% CI: 1.39–1.61]; p < .001), and tea with sugar (OR = 1.13 [95% CI: 1.05–1.22]; p < .001). In addition, short sleep in students was associated with a decreased odds of daily intake of soft drinks without sugars (OR = 0.64 [95% CI: 0.58–0.70]; p < .001), soft beer (OR = 0.92 [95% CI: 0.85–0.99]; p < .001), fresh fruit (OR = 0.83 [95% CI: 0.76–0.90]; p < .001), dried fruit (OR = 0.43 [95% CI: 0.39–0.46]; p < .001), fresh fruit juice (OR = 0.66 [95% CI: 0.62–0.72]; p < .001), packed juice (OR = 0.91 [95% CI: 0.84–0.98]; p < .009), milk (OR = 0.51 [95% CI: 0.47–0.55]; p < .001), yogurt (OR = 0.86 [95% CI: 0.79–0.93]; p ≤ .001), and coffee (OR = 0.82 [95% CI: 0.76–0.89]; p ≤ .001). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study indicate a significant relationship between sleep duration and unhealthy food habits. Therefore, increasing awareness of families in this area may reduce obesity and its complications.