Actigraphy Measured Sleep Characteristics and Obesity in Children

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Bachnak, Danil
Area of Honors:
Nutritional Sciences
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Kathleen Loralee Keller, Thesis Supervisor
Muzi Na, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
sleep
childhood obesity
actigraphy
adiposity
body fat percentage
pediatric health
sleep timing
sleep regularity
Abstract:
Obesity continues to be a significant public health concern, and evidence shows that sleep may play an important role in shaping its risk during childhood. The current thesis aimed to examine associations between multiple aspects of sleep and adiposity in children using objective measures. Data for this thesis was derived from Study BRAKE, a crossover study of children aged 8 to 10 years (n = 76). Sleep data was recorded using wrist-worn actigraphy over a seven-day period, allowing for the objective measurement of sleep duration, timing, regularity, and fragmentation. Body fat percentage was measured using air displacement plethysmography (Bod Pod®). Differences between healthy weight and overweight/obesity groups were analyzed. Results indicated that sleep duration was not significantly different between healthy and overweight/obesity participants (p = 0.380). However, mean sleep onset time, midpoint, regularity, number of fragments, and sleep to wake transition probability each differed significantly across weight status, indicating an association between sleep timing and regularity and weight status. Correlation analyses further supported these findings, showing that later sleep timing and lower sleep regularity were associated with higher body fat percentage. These findings suggest that different aspects of sleep collectively contribute to childhood obesity risk. Future studies are needed to further explore these relationships due to several inconsistencies between the present findings and existing literature.