Purpose: This study analyzed the gender differences in the cross-sectional relationship between sleep duration and metabolic health in Korean adolescents. Materials and Methods: Adolescents (1234 males, 1073 females) aged 12-19 years who provided their metabolic syndrome score (MetZscore) and sleep duration were included from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2016-2020 data. Waist circumference (WC), blood pressure (BP), glucose, triglycerides (TGs), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) were combined to create a standardized MetZscore. Gender-specific linear or quadratic relationships between sleep durations (weekday or difference between weekend and weekday sleep) and MetZscore were analyzed after adjusting for age, family affluence, and self-rated health. Results: Male adolescents displayed an inverse linear relationship between weekday sleep duration and MetZscore [B, -0.037 (confidence interval, 95% CI: -0.054 to -0.019)], whereas females showed a nonsignificant relationship. In male adolescents, the standardized scores of WC, BP, and TG decreased linearly as weekday sleep duration increased. In females, weekday sleep duration had an inverse linear association with WC score and a positive quadratic association with glucose score. MetZscore declined linearly as the difference in sleep durations between weekends and weekdays increased [B, -0.078 (95% CI: -0.123 to -0.034) in males; B, -0.042 (95% CI: -0.080 to -0.005) in females]. Although the scores of WC and HDL in males and the scores of WC and glucose in females had inverse linear relationships with the difference in sleep durations, the BP score in males had a positive quadratic association. Conclusions: According to this study, metabolic health benefited from longer weekend sleep durations than weekdays in both male and female adolescents and longer weekdays sleep durations in male adolescents.
Keywords: adolescent; gender differences; metabolic health; sleep duration.