Associations between paediatric fatigue and eating behaviours

BACKGROUND: In adults, poor sleep quality is associated with increased obesogenic eating behaviours; less is known about this relationship in youth. The objectives of this study were to assess the strength of association between fatigue‐related quality of life (QoL) and eating behaviours among youth and to describe the associations in participants with percent body fat (%BF) above and below the 90th percentile for sex and age. METHODS: Caregiver‐reported measures of fatigue (Pediatric QoL Multidimensional Fatigue Scale) and eating behaviours (Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire) were obtained from participants aged 8–17 years. %BF was measured by iDXA and grouped by sex‐ and age‐specific percentiles. Multiple linear regression adjusting for age, sex and race/ethnicity was used. RESULTS: Of the 352 participants (49% male), 44.6% had %BF >90th percentile. General, sleep/rest and cognitive fatigue QoL was inversely associated with food approach behaviours: food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, emotional overeating and desire to drink. For participants with %BF >90th percentile, higher general fatigue QoL was associated with higher satiety responsiveness (0.13; 95% confidence interval [CI 0.03, 0.24]). For participants with %BF ≤90th percentile, higher general fatigue QoL was associated with less satiety responsiveness (−0.16; 95% CI [−0.31, −0.01]). CONCLUSION: Less fatigue symptoms were associated with less behaviours associated with food approach among paediatric participants. For participants with %BF >90th percentile, less symptoms of general fatigues corresponded with more satiety. Though causation has yet to be established, youth with elevated %BF should be screened for fatigue symptoms and offered counselling on sleep hygiene or a sleep medicine referral to help mitigate weight gain.