Sleep disturbance associations between parents and children with overweight and obesity

This cross-sectional study examined sleep disturbance associations between parents and their school-age children with overweight and obesity. A 7-day wrist-worn actigraph recording was performed on 246 children aged 6-9 years with overweight and obesity recruited from 10 public elementary schools in Taipei, Taiwan. Children's sleep disturbance was assessed using the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire. Parental subjective sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, with parental depressive symptoms measured using the Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale. General linear models were used to examine sleep disturbance associations within parent-child dyads. The results showed that 208 (84.6%) children had a clinically significant sleep disturbance score, and 123 (50%) parents had poor sleep quality. Higher children's sleep disturbance scores significantly predicted poorer parental sleep quality (b = 0.11, p < 0.001). Poorer parental sleep quality was associated with more severe sleep disturbances in children (b = 0.46, p < 0.001). This association was independent of children's actigraphic sleep (all p > 0.05) and was not attenuated by adjustment for parental depressive symptoms (b = 0.14, p < 0.001). Findings from our study suggest that sleep disturbances occur in both parents and their school-age children with overweight and obesity, with a significant bidirectional association between the two. Nurses and healthcare professionals should proactively assess and screen for sleep disturbances in parent-child dyads of children with overweight and obesity. Future studies should develop family-based sleep interventions and evaluate their effects on the sleep, health, and well-being of children with overweight and obesity and their parents.