Longitudinal impact of sleep on overweight and obesity in children and adolescents: a systematic review and bias‐adjusted meta‐analysis

Short sleep duration is considered a potential risk for overweight/obesity in childhood and adolescence. However, most of the evidence on this topic is obtained from cross-sectional studies; therefore, the nature and extent of the longitudinal associations are unclear. This study explores the prospective association between short sleep and overweight/obesity in young subjects. The MEDLINE, EMBASE, Pubmed, and CINAHL databases were searched for English-language articles, published until May 2014, reporting longitudinal association between sleep and body mass index (BMI) in children and adolescents. Recommendations of the Sleep Health Foundation were used to standardize reference sleep duration. Sleep category,…

• UO
  University of Queensland
• NH
  National Health and Medical Research Council

  Award: 1026598
• NM
  National Medical Research Council