WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative: associations between sleep duration, screen time and food consumption frequencies

• Published in: BMC public health Vol. 15; no. 1; p. 442
• Main Authors: Börnhorst, Claudia, Wijnhoven, Trudy M A, Kunešová, Marie, Yngve, Agneta, Rito, Ana I, Lissner, Lauren, Duleva, Vesselka, Petrauskiene, Ausra, Breda, João
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 30.04.2015; BioMed Central
• Subjects: ADOLESCENTS; ADULTS; Analysis; BODY-MASS INDEX; Child; Childhood overweight; CHILDRENS TELEVISION; Chocolate candy; CHOICE; COMMUNICATION; Computer use; Computers - statistics & numerical data; Cross; Cross-Sectional Studies; Culinary Arts and Meal Science; Diet; DIETARY-INTAKE; Environmental & Occupational Health; Europe; Feeding Behavior; Female; Folkhälsovetenskap; Food; Food frequency; Food habits; Food Preferences; Fruit; Health aspects; Humans; Male; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Måltidskunskap; Nutrition and Dietetics; Näringslära; Odds Ratio; OVERWEIGHT; Parents; Pediatric Obesity - epidemiology; Population Surveillance - methods; Public; Public health; Screen time; SEDENTARY BEHAVIOR; Sleep; Television - statistics & numerical data; Television and children; Television viewers; Time Factors; TV viewing; Vegetables; WEIGHT; World Health Organization; Europe; TV viewing; Screen time; Childhood overweight; Sleep; Europe; Computer use; Snacks; Food frequency; Cross-sectional study
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-015-1793-3

Both sleep duration and screen time have been suggested to affect children's diet, although in different directions and presumably through different pathways. The present cross-sectional study aimed to simultaneously investigate the associations between sleep duration, screen time and food consumption frequencies in children. The analysis was based on 10 453 children aged 6-9 years from five European countries that participated in the World Health Organization European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative. Logistic multilevel models were used to assess associations of parent-reported screen time as well as sleep duration (exposure variables) with consumption frequencies of 16 food items (outcome variables). All models were adjusted for age, sex, outdoor play time, maximum educational level of parents and sleep duration or screen time, depending on the exposure under investigation. One additional hour of screen time was associated with increased consumption frequencies of 'soft drinks containing sugar' (1.28 [1.19;1.39]; odds ratio and 99% confidence interval), 'diet/light soft drinks' (1.21 [1.14;1.29]), 'flavoured milk' (1.18 [1.08;1.28]), 'candy bars or chocolate' (1.31 [1.22;1.40]), 'biscuits, cakes, doughnuts or pies' (1.22 [1.14;1.30]), 'potato chips (crisps), corn chips, popcorn or peanuts' (1.32 [1.20;1.45]), 'pizza, French fries (chips), hamburgers'(1.30 [1.18;1.43]) and with a reduced consumption frequency of 'vegetables (excluding potatoes)' (0.89 [0.83;0.95]) and 'fresh fruits' (0.91 [0.86;0.97]). Conversely, one additional hour of sleep duration was found to be associated with increased consumption frequencies of 'fresh fruits' (1.11 [1.04;1.18]) and 'vegetables (excluding potatoes)' (1.14 [1.07;1.23]). The results suggest a potential relation between high screen time exposure and increased consumption frequencies of foods high in fat, free sugar or salt whereas long sleep duration may favourably be related to children's food choices. Both screen time and sleep duration are modifiable behaviours that may be tackled in childhood obesity prevention efforts.