Body mass index and sleep disturbances: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Overweight and obesity have been common non-communicable diseases in recent years that have far-reaching health effects. This study aimed to study the risk of sleep disturbances based on overweight and obesity using a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Three sources of scientific information, namely PubMed, Scopus, and Embase, were selected as scientific databases and searched for articles published in English until May 2021. Also, a manual search on related articles was done. The resulting data required a meta-analysis based on odds ratios, which were extracted and then pooled. The odds ratio was calculated based on the random-effects method. Publication bias and the degree of heterogeneity were studied. Twenty-one longitudinal studies were selected for this meta-analysis. The odds ratio (OR) in this association between body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 and sleep disturbances was 1.33 and the confidence interval (CI) was between 1.16-1.51. This OR was 1.12 and CI was between 0.98-1.29 in overweight. The OR was 1.24 and CI was between 1.07-1.44 in obesity. The OR was 1.92 and CI was between 0.89-4.15 in men. The OR was 1.47 and CI was between 1.15-1.89 in women. Publication bias and heterogeneity were evident in the meta-analysis.

Obesity increases the risk of sleep disturbances in the long term, and both obesity and sleep disturbances have negative effects on health, so it is necessary to develop appropriate interventions to improve obesity.