Children & Obesity
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Historically, an overweight child was seen as positive health growth and was more likely to survive undernourishment as well as infection (Ebbelling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002). However, in the past decade, childhood obesity has developed an increasing trend that is taking over the world as a public health problem, especially in the industrial countries such as the United States and Canada (Ebbelling et al., 2002). To be fair, childhood obesity is also seen in other parts of the world.
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Children & Obesity
In the past 30 years there are increasing number of children and youth becoming obese. The rates of obesity nearly tripled in the last 30 years for children and youth (Healthy Canadians, 2013). One interesting fact is that there is a high risk of children who are obese to more likely stay obese into adulthood (Health Canadians, 2013).
How important is sleep?
Sleep can have an effect on obesity because of its association with the hunger hormones in the human body. Sleep restriction has been shown to increase ghrelin (a hormone that is normally secreted when the stomach is empty to increase hunger), and decrease leptin (a hormone that would normally supress hunger), this results in increased appetite (Spiegel, et al., 2004). Consequently, leading to obesity.
Having insufficient sleep can also cause your child to feel fatigued throughout the day. This may reduce their likelihood of wanting to participate in physical actvities, and lead them to a more sedentary lifestyle of watching television or spending time on a computer (Magee et al., 2013).
The following flow chart shows the different mechanisms through which sleep deprivation can cause obesity.
Having insufficient sleep can also cause your child to feel fatigued throughout the day. This may reduce their likelihood of wanting to participate in physical actvities, and lead them to a more sedentary lifestyle of watching television or spending time on a computer (Magee et al., 2013).
The following flow chart shows the different mechanisms through which sleep deprivation can cause obesity.
Retrieved from Patel & Hu, 2008.
The less sleep your child gets, the greater the chances they will be overweight or obese, this has been shown in numerous reseach studies (Wing et al., 2009; Padez et al., 2009; Bayer et al., 2009). It is recommended that a child receives about 11 hours of sleep per night, as this has been shown to decrease the odds of being obese.
This table shows that as sleep duration decreases, the chances of being obese increases.
This table shows that as sleep duration decreases, the chances of being obese increases.
Retrieved from Wing et al. 2009.
This graph shows that children who were able to persistently receive 11 hours of sleep per night, are least likely to be obese or overweight.
Retrieved from Touchette et al. 2008.
Television viewing at an early age has also been associated with the increased probability of being obese in later years (Magee et al., 2009). Although it is not clear whether the lack of sleep promotes television viewing, or that television viewing prevents someone from getting sufficient sleep. In either case it would be beneficial for you to promote physical activity to your child as an alternative to watching TV. Physical activity will benefit your child in many ways, one of which includes giving them a better quality of sleep (Delisle, et al., 2010).
If your child is not able to receive sufficient sleep during weekdays due to afterschool activities or other priorities. They can partly compensate for this lack of sleep by sleeping in on weekends, or holidays (Wing et al., 2009). However, it is not recommended that you purposely reduce your child’s sleep on weekdays thinking that it will be fully compensated by the extra sleep on the weekend.
This table shows that the chances of being obese is greatly increased if sleep is not compensated on the weekends or holidays compared to if it was, particularly if less than 8 hours of sleep is received
If your child is not able to receive sufficient sleep during weekdays due to afterschool activities or other priorities. They can partly compensate for this lack of sleep by sleeping in on weekends, or holidays (Wing et al., 2009). However, it is not recommended that you purposely reduce your child’s sleep on weekdays thinking that it will be fully compensated by the extra sleep on the weekend.
This table shows that the chances of being obese is greatly increased if sleep is not compensated on the weekends or holidays compared to if it was, particularly if less than 8 hours of sleep is received
Retrieved from Wing et al., 2009
![Picture](/uploads/4/1/5/7/41574073/1416370138.png?250)
In a study byChahal et al. (2012), they found that by simply having access to electronic entertainment and communication devices available at night was associated by a higher odds for excess bodyweight compared to children without access. Overall they found that among children ages of 10 and 11 are likely to have shortened sleep due to having electronic entertainment and communication devices available, which may increase the odds of becoming obese or overweight (Chahal et al., 2012).
This table on the left shows the association between sleep duration and the presence of electronic entertainment and communication devices.
This table on the left shows the association between sleep duration and the presence of electronic entertainment and communication devices.
We recommend that school-aged children should participate in having 10-11 hours of sleep per night because in a study by Chaput et al.(2011), the more important contributor to overweight or obesity is short sleep duration compared to television viewing, socio-economic status, and physical activity. This is very important to understand that sleep duration is a key contributor to preventing obesity in order to reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and all-cause mortality (Chaput et al., 2011).