Poor Sleep Habits Put the Obese Teen at Risk

Obese adolescents who don’t get enough sleep may have a higher risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, according to a new study in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Previous research has shown that lack of sleep and obesity are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in adults and young children—however, not as much is known about the adolescent age group.
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So researchers at University of Michigan Health System and Baylor University studied 37 obese adolescents, ages 11 to 17, and gave each a continuous cardiometabolic risk score based on fasting cholesterol and blood sugar, waist circumference, body mass index, and blood pressure. Then they fitted the adolescents with a physical activity monitor, which was worn 24 hours a day for 1 full week, to monitor their typical patterns of physical activity and sleep.

“What is of particular interest, and significance, is that even among this high-risk population of obese adolescents, sleep predicted cardiometabolic risk,” says lead researcher Heidi IglayReger, PhD, Laboratory Supervisor of the Physical Activity Laboratory at the Michigan Metabolomics and Obesity Center.

One-third of the participants met the minimum recommendation of being physically active at least 60 minutes a day. Most participants slept about 7 hours each night, usually waking up at least once, and only 5 of the participants met the minimal recommended 8.5 hours of sleep per night. Even after the researchers controlled for factors related to cardiometabolic risk, such as BMI and physical activity, low levels of sleep remained a significant predictor of cardiometabolic risk in obese teens.

“Based upon our findings, I would suggest that primary care providers consider measuring sleep and physical activity in free-living conditions—ie, sending their obese adolescent patients home with a physical activity/sleep monitor, such as the one we utilized within this study,” IglayReger says. “Objectively measuring sleep may help providers and patients address less-than-ideal habits.” 

“What we know from this study is that sleep and cardiometabolic risk are inversely related in obese adolescents,” she says. “We do not know if purposefully increasing sleep would decrease cardiometabolic risk in this population—that’s our next study.” 

That study will include an intervention group, in which sleep is primary goal for all participants. Identifying goals such as this is a part of the multidisciplinary, family-based approach to weight management. “We will monitor sleep, as we did in this study, and will determine 1) if we really can increase/change sleep in obese adolescents, and 2) if these changes are associated with changes in cardiometabolic risk,” IglayReger says.  

—Colleen Mullarkey

Reference

IglayReger HB, Peterson MD, Liu D, Parker CA, Woolford SJ, Gafka BJ, et al. Sleep duration predicts cardiometabolic risk in obese adolescents. J Pediatric. DOI 10.1016/j.jpeds.2014.01.034. [Published March 6, 2014.]