Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Feb:18:61-6.
doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2015.06.008. Epub 2015 Jun 29.

Longitudinal differences in sleep duration in Hispanic and Caucasian children

Daniel Combs  1 , James L Goodwin  2 , Stuart F Quan  3 , Wayne J Morgan  4 , Sairam Parthasarathy  5
Affiliations

Longitudinal differences in sleep duration in Hispanic and Caucasian children

Daniel Combs et al. Sleep Med. 2016 Feb.

Abstract

Background and aim: Short sleep duration is associated with significant negative consequences, including poor school performance, behavioral problems, obesity, and hypertension. There is prior evidence that there are disparities in sleep duration related to ethnicity; however, there are no specific data on Hispanic children. We aimed to test the hypothesis that there are ethnic differences in parent-reported sleep duration in a community-based cohort of Hispanic and Caucasian children.

Methods: We examined the parent-reported sleep patterns of a community-based prospective cohort (Tucson Children's Assessment of Sleep Apnea study [TuCASA]) involving 338 Hispanic and Caucasian children at two time points approximately five years apart.

Results: In the initial phase of the TuCASA study with a cohort median age of 8.8 years (interquartile range (IQR), 7.6-10.1 years), parent-reported sleep duration during weekdays was shorter in Hispanic (median, 9.5 h; IQR, 9.0, 10.0 years) than in Caucasian children (10 h; IQR, 9.5, 10.0 h; p < 0.0001); however, this difference was not seen 5 years later when the cohort was older (median age, 13.3 years; IQR, 11.9-14.6 years; p = 0.43). In addition, Hispanic children had a significantly later bedtime at both time points (p < 0.02). In the initial phase, parent-reported sleep duration during weekends tended to be shorter in Hispanic than in Caucasian children (p = 0.06).

Conclusions: Short sleep duration in Hispanic children may contribute to health disparities. Our research suggests that in Hispanic children, behavioral interventions toward improving sleep duration accomplished by earlier bedtimes or delayed school start times and mechanistic studies to unravel any inherent tendency toward a delayed sleep phase are needed.

Keywords: Circadian rhythm; Health status disparities; Hispanic americans; Sleep; Sleep deprivation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

Dr. Parthasarathy reports grants from NIH/NHLBI, grants from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, grants from the US Department of Defense, grants from NIH (National Cancer Institute) NCI, grants from the US Department of Army, grants from the Johrei Institute, personal fees from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, personal fees from the American College of Chest Physicians, nonfinancial support from the National Center for Sleep Disorders Research of the NIH (NHLBI), personal fees from UpToDate Inc., personal fees from Philips Respironics, Inc., grants from Younes Sleep Technologies, Ltd., grants from Niveus Medical Inc., grants from Philips Respironics, Inc., outside the submitted work; In addition, Dr. Parthasarathy has a patent UA 14-018 U.S.S.N. 61/884,654; PTAS 502570970 (home-breathing device) pending. The abovementioned conflicts including the patent are unrelated to the topic of this paper. Drs. Daniel Combs and James Goodwin do not have any conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Wayne Morgan has received grant funding from NIH and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he is a consultant to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Genentech. These are all unrelated to the topic of this paper. Dr. Stuart F. Quan reports grants from the NIH/NIA, the American Diabetes Association, and the National Science Foundation, and he consults for the Global Corporate Challenge and the American Board of Internal Medicine.

The ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest associated with this article can be viewed by clicking on the following link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2015.06.008.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Changes in sleep duration, bedtime, and wake time over time. Left upper panel: weekday sleep duration; right upper panel: weekend sleep duration; left lower panel: weekday bedtime; right lower panel: weekday wake time. All graphs are after adjustment for covariates. Hispanic children slept significantly less than Caucasian children during phase 1, but at phase 2, this difference was no longer significant. Hispanic children also maintained a consistently later bedtime compared with Caucasian children at both time points. There were no significant differences in weekday wake time or weekend sleep duration at either time point.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Matricciani L, Olds T, Petkov J. In search of lost sleep: secular trends in the sleep time of school-aged children and adolescents. Sleep Med Rev. 2012;16:203–211. - PubMed
    1. Mercer PW, Merritt SL, Cowell JM. Differences in reported sleep need among adolescents. J Adolesc Health. 1998;23:259–263. - PubMed
    1. Reilly JJ, Armstrong J, Dorosty AR, et al. Early life risk factors for obesity in childhood: cohort study. BMJ. 2005;330:1357. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Snell EK, Adam EK, Duncan GJ. Sleep and the body mass index and overweight status of children and adolescents. Child Dev. 2007;78:309–323. - PubMed
    1. Pileggi C, Lotito F, Bianco A, Nobile CG, Pavia M. Relationship between chronic short sleep duration and childhood body mass index: a school-based cross-sectional study. PLoS ONE. 2013;8:e66680. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources