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. 2019 Sep;35(4):436-441.
doi: 10.1111/jrh.12341. Epub 2018 Nov 28.

Sleep in Farm Adolescents

Ian Janssen  1   2 , Richard L Berg  3 , Barbara Marlenga  4 , William Pickett  2
Affiliations

Sleep in Farm Adolescents

Ian Janssen et al. J Rural Health. 2019 Sep.

Abstract

Purpose: The objectives were to: (1) describe sleep timing and patterns among adolescents who live or work on farms; (2) compare these sleep characteristics to those of nonfarm adolescents; (3) explore whether the above sleep and farm versus nonfarm differences varied by age and gender.

Methods: Participants were aged 11-16 years and were abstracted from the 2014 Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. Records from 2,160 farm adolescents were frequency matched (by school, gender, and grade) to records from 2,210 nonfarm adolescents. Participants self-reported their bedtimes and wake-up times on weekdays and weekends.

Findings: Among farm adolescents, average nightly sleep duration (hours:minutes) ranged from 08:34 among 14- to 16-year-old girls to 09:21 among 11- to 13-year-old girls. Approximately 24% to 32% of farm adolescents did not meet minimal sleep duration targets. For 11- to 13-year-olds, sleep characteristics did not differ according to farm status. However, for 14- to 16-year-olds, farm adolescents had shorter sleep durations than nonfarm adolescents (23 minutes for boys, P = .02; 20 minutes for girls, P = .06). Furthermore, a greater proportion of 14- to 16-year-old farm boys had sleep duration values less than the recommended 8 hours/night (27.7% vs 19.6%, P = .05).

Conclusions: This study profiles the sleep experiences of 11- to 16-year-old farm adolescents. Almost 1 in 3 of these adolescents did not get adequate sleep. Older adolescents who lived or worked on a farm slept less than comparably aged nonfarm adolescents. This may reflect their participation in morning chores essential to the farm operation and may increase their injury risk.

Keywords: adolescent; epidemiology; farmers; health surveys; sleep.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Demographic Description of Samples of Farm and Nonfarm Youth, Including Matching Criteria.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Proportion (%) of Farm and Nonfarm Youth Who Slept Less Than the Recommended Duration, When Averaged Across All 7 Days of the Week, According to Age and Gender.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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