title: Associations between sleep duration patterns and overweight/obesity at age 6.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether longitudinal sleep duration patterns during early childhood is a risk factor of overweight or obesity at school entry while controlling for a variety of obesogenic environmental factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a prospective cohort study (March-December 1998 to December 2004) of a representative sample of infants born in 1997-1998 in the Canadian province of Quebec. Body mass index (BMI) was measured at ages 2.5 and 6 years. Sleep duration was reported yearly from 2.5 to 6 years of age by their mothers. Prenatal, postnatal (5 and 29 months), and lifestyle (6 y) potentially confounding factors for excess weight were assessed by interviews, questionnaires and hospital records. A group-based semiparametric mixture model was used to estimate developmental patterns of sleep duration. The relationship between sleep duration patterns and BMI was tested using multivariate logistic regression models to control for potentially confounding factors on 1138 children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four sleep duration patterns were identified: short persistent (5.2%), short increasing (4.7%), 10-hour persistent (50.7%), and 11-hour persistent (39.4%). After controlling for potentially confounding factors, the risk for overweight or obesity was almost 4.2 times higher for short persistent sleepers (odds ratio [OR], 4.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6 to 11.1; P = 0.003) than for 11-hour persistent sleepers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Persistently short sleep duration (<10 h) during early childhood significantly increases the risk of excess weight or obesity in childhood, and appears to be independent of other obesogenic factors.
authors.affiliation: Sleep Disorders Center, Sacre-Coeur Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Evelyne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Touchette
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Petit
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Tremblay
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boivin
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Falissard
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Genolini
authors.forename: Jacques Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Montplaisir
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D050177:Overweight; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013997:Time Factors