Association between sleep period time and dietary patterns in Brazilian schoolchildren aged 7-13 years

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the association between sleep period time and dietary patterns (DPs) in Brazilian schoolchildren aged 7-13 years.

Methods: Sleep data of 1019 children were obtained from a questionnaire completed by parents/guardians. Food consumption, physical activity, and screen-based activity were assessed through the validated Web-CAAFE questionnaire. Latent profile analysis was used to identify dietary patterns. Associations between sleep period time and dietary patterns were analyzed by multinomial logistic regression, and the average marginal effect of sleep period time on the probability of adherence to dietary patterns was determined.

Results: Overall, 11.4% of children had inadequate sleep period time (<9 h per day). Three mutually exclusive dietary patterns were identified: "Monotonous" characterized by high consumption of pasta, instant pasta, sweets, and hamburgers/hot dog/pizza/salty snacks; "Traditional" characterized by high consumption of rice, vegetables, green leaves, beans, manioc flour, maize/potatoes, and meats; and "Dairy, bread, green leaves, maize/potatoes and sausage". The likelihood of adherence to the "Dairy, bread, green leaves, maize/potatoes and sausages" DP decreased by 0.026 as sleep period time increased by 1 h per day. For a sleep period time of more than 10 h per day, the average marginal effect of sleep period time on the likelihood of adherence to the this dietary pattern was significant and negative.

Conclusions: Sleep period time was inversely associated with adherence to the "Dairy, bread, green leaves, maize/potatoes and sausages" DP; children who slept more than 10 h per day were less likely to present this pattern.

Keywords: Dietary pattern; Latent profile analysis; Schoolchildren; Sleep.