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Does an intervention that improves infant sleep also improve overweight at age 6? Follow-up of a randomised trial

Melissa Wake1, Anna Price, Susan Clifford

  • 1Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia. melissa.wake@rch.org.au

Archives of Disease in Childhood
|March 16, 2011
PubMed

Insights

A brief infant sleep intervention did not reduce childhood obesity by age 6. This study suggests that population-based sleep services may not effectively combat the early childhood obesity epidemic.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatrics
  • Public Health
  • Sleep Medicine

Background:

  • Short sleep duration is linked to childhood obesity.
  • Sleep interventions offer a potential prevention strategy.
  • Infant sleep problems are common and may influence long-term health.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the impact of a behavioral infant sleep intervention on childhood adiposity.
  • To determine if reducing parent-reported infant sleep problems affects body mass index (BMI) and obesity at age 6.
  • To explore the association between sleep duration and anthropometric outcomes in children.

Main Methods:

  • A 5-year follow-up of a population-based cluster randomized trial.
  • 328 infants with sleep problems received either a behavioral sleep intervention or usual care.
  • Outcomes measured at age 6 included BMI z-score, overweight/obesity status, and waist circumference, analyzed via intention-to-treat.

Main Results:

  • No significant difference in BMI z-score, overweight/obesity prevalence, or waist circumference was observed between intervention and control groups at age 6.
  • Retention rate was 59% with anthropometric data available for 193 children.
  • Posthoc analyses found no association between infant or childhood sleep duration and anthropometric outcomes.

Conclusions:

  • A brief behavioral intervention for infant sleep problems did not reduce overweight or obesity at age 6.
  • Population-based primary care sleep services are unlikely to be effective in reducing the childhood obesity epidemic.
  • Further research may be needed to identify effective strategies for obesity prevention through sleep interventions.
Abstract

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