Poor Sleep Tied to Heavier Kids – and Greater Risk of Cancer

A new study has found that poor sleep is associated with obesity in children, which can increase the risk of cancer.

According to data presented at the 2018 American Association for Cancer Research Special Conference, several measures of poor sleep quality were associated with higher body mass index (BMI) in children.

About one in five children between the ages of six and 19 is obese, according to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The percentage of U.S. children with obesity has more than tripled since the 1970s.

“Childhood obesity very often leads to adult obesity,” said the study’s lead author, Bernard Fuemmeler, Ph.D., MPH, a professor and associate director for cancer prevention and control at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Massey Cancer Center. “This puts them at greater risk of developing obesity-related cancers in adulthood.”

Fuemmeler explained that previous research has shown that sleep patterns play a role in obesity in adults. But most research exploring the connection between sleep and obesity in children has focused on the duration of sleep, rather than the quality of sleep or how circadian patterns affect eating behaviors and weight.

In this study, Fuemmeler and his colleagues enrolled 120 children whose mothers had participated in the Newborn Epigenetic Study, a federally funded project that examines how environmental exposures and nutrition, both pre-birth and during early childhood, affect how genes work.

The average age of the children was 8. Researchers controlled for age, sex, race, and maternal education as an indicator of socioeconomic status.

To track the sleep-wake cycle, the children wore accelerometers for 24 hours a day for at least five days. To gauge eating habits, children completed the “eating in the absence of hunger test.” Children ate a meal and reported when they were full; the researchers then tracked how much food they ate once they had reached the point of satiety.

The researchers found:

• shorter sleep duration, measured in hours, was associated with a higher BMI z-score (body mass index adjusted for age and sex). Each additional hour of sleep was associated with a .13 decrease in BMI z-score, and with a 1.29 centimeter decrease in waist circumference;
• more fragmented rest-activity rhythms and increased intradaily variability, a measure of the frequency and extent of transitions between sleep and activity, were also associated with greater waist circumferences;
• earlier onset of the most active period during daytime, diurnal activity, was associated with higher intake of calories once the children had reached the point of satiety.

Overall, Fuemmeler said, the study results indicate that while sleep duration is important, examining markers of sleep quality may also be useful in designing childhood obesity prevention strategies.

“Today, many children are not getting enough sleep,” he said. “There are a number of distractions, such as screens in the bedroom, that contribute to interrupted, fragmented sleep. This, perpetuated over time, can be a risk factor for obesity.

“Because of the strong links between obesity and many types of cancer, childhood obesity prevention is cancer prevention, in my view.”

Source: American Association for Cancer Research 

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