Association between Sleep and Body Weight: A Panel Data Model Based on a Retrospective Longitudinal Cohort of Chinese Infants

Tingting Sha, Yan Yan, Xiao Gao, Shiting Xiang, Guangyu Zeng, Shiping Liu and Qiong He
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Tingting Sha: Department of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, Hunan, China
Yan Yan: Department of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, Hunan, China
Xiao Gao: Department of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, Hunan, China
Shiting Xiang: Department of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, Hunan, China
Guangyu Zeng: Department of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, Hunan, China
Shiping Liu: Department of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, Hunan, China
Qiong He: Department of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, Hunan, China

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: The focus of this article is on sleep duration and sleep problems in infants and their association with body weight. A retrospective birth cohort of 519 infants was enrolled in a community-based study conducted in Changsha, China. Infant weight and other health-related information were collected during regular standard checkups at the Community Health Service Centers when infants were 1, 3, 6, 8, and 12 months old. The sleep duration and sleep problems of infants were assessed by maternal self-reports. Panel data model was used to evaluate the association of sleep duration and sleep problems with infant body weight. Significant relevance between self-reported sleep duration and weight of infants has been reported in the literature tested by the fixed effects model ( p < 0.01). However, this study indicated that sleep problems of infants had no effect on their weight ( p = 0.151), after adjusting feeding patterns and socioeconomic factors of their families. This paper argues that, as a potentially modifiable risk factor, infant sleep duration deserves more attention from their parents and families in order to prevent and control overweight or obesity in infants as well as reducing the incidence of obesity in adults.

Keywords: sleep duration; body weight; panel data; fixed effects; obesity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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