Sleep insufficiency, as well as other lifestyle factors, likely plays a key role in childhood obesity, a recent study suggests. Researchers used baseline data from 335 schoolchildren aged 7 to 12 years to determine 5 indicators of obesity. Participants wore wrist actigraphy (n=264) for 7 consecutive days/nights to objectively estimate 6 sleep features. Among the findings:

• Average weekly sleep duration was 7.6±0.7 hours and 42.1% of the participants were overweight/obese.
• After adjustment, those achieving <8 hours of sleep had an increased body mass index (BMI) z-score, waist circumference, body fat percentage, and fat mass vs those sleeping >8 hours.
• Sleeping <8 hours was associated with an increased risk of obesity (OR, 3.75).