Sleep, social behaviour and food consumption of schoolchildren of a large Brazilian city

Abstract

Objective: To characterize sleep and associated factors to their inadequacy, mainly social behaviour and food consumption of children and adolescents. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Sleep information, social behaviour (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), food consumption, demography, nutritional status, lifestyle and biochemical tests were investigated. Participants: Schoolchildren of the 4th grade of the municipal school system of a large Brazilian city. Results: A total of 797 schoolchildren, 50.9% was female, median of 9.7 (9.5-10.0) y old and energy consumption of 1819.7 (1429.9-2334.2) kcal. It was identified 31.6% of overweight and 76.8% reported insufficient weekly practice of physical activity. It was observed a median of 9.6 (8.9-10.5) h of sleep (lower values on weekdays: 9.3 vs 10.5h, P<0.001). In addition, 27% of individuals with inadequate sleep (<9h) enjoy longer screen time daily (≥2h/day) (P=0.05), inadequate bedtime (>22h) or adequate wake-up time (5-7h), study in the morning (P<0.001) and never take a shower before school (P<0.001). There was 9.9% of the sample with poor and very poor sleep quality and a greater probability of always sleep talking, have difficulty getting to sleep and inadequate social behaviour between these in relation to those with positive quality of sleep. There was no association of sleep with the other variables investigated. Conclusions: Sleep impairment contributed to changes in sleep and social behaviour in schoolchildren. The findings of this study may reinforce the importance of developing actions to promote adequate sleep and lifestyle at school age.

Epidemiology of sleep patterns and circadian typology in uruguayan children: The contribution of school shifts

“…In other words, Uruguayan children are more late-oriented than Japanese [ 14 ] and Swiss children [ 13 ], but not later than Portuguese [ 30 ] or Spanish ones [ 38 ]. In line with this, the average values of circadian misalignment and sleep duration are also comparable to other cultural-related populations [ 30 , 33 , 38 , 42 , 43 ]. This first chronobiological characterization of childhood in a Latin American country is already an important contribution of this study.…”