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. 2024 Jan;20(1):73-81.
doi: 10.1007/s12519-023-00694-x. Epub 2023 Mar 3.

Neighborhood predictors of short sleep duration and bedtime irregularity among children in the United States: results from the 2019-2020 National Survey of Children's Health

Ying Dai  1 , Jianghong Liu  2
Affiliations

Neighborhood predictors of short sleep duration and bedtime irregularity among children in the United States: results from the 2019-2020 National Survey of Children's Health

Ying Dai et al. World J Pediatr. 2024 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Environmental factors may contribute to short sleep duration and irregular bedtime in children. Neighborhood factors and children's sleep duration and bedtime regularity remain a less investigated area. The aim of this study was to investigate the national and state-level proportions of children with short sleep duration and irregular bedtime and their neighborhood predictors.

Methods: A total of 67,598 children whose parents completed the National Survey of Children's Health in 2019-2020 were included in the analysis. Survey-weighted Poisson regression was used to explore the neighborhood predictors of children's short sleep duration and irregular bedtime.

Results: The prevalence of short sleep duration and irregular bedtime among children in the United States (US) was 34.6% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 33.8%-35.4%] and 16.4% (95% CI = 15.6%-17.2%) in 2019-2020, respectively. Safe neighborhoods, supportive neighborhoods, and neighborhoods with amenities were found to be protective factors against children's short sleep duration, with risk ratios ranging between 0.92 and 0.94, P < 0.05. Neighborhoods with detracting elements were associated with an increased risk of short sleep duration [risk ratio (RR) = 1.06, 95% CI = 1.00-1.12] and irregular bedtime (RR = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.03-1.28). Child race/ethnicity moderated the relationship between neighborhood with amenities and short sleep duration.

Conclusions: Insufficient sleep duration and irregular bedtime were highly prevalent among US children. A favorable neighborhood environment can decrease children's risk of short sleep duration and irregular bedtime. Improving the neighborhood environment has implications for children's sleep health, especially for children from minority racial/ethnic groups.

Keywords: Child; National Survey of Children’s Health; Neighborhood; Sleep; Social determinants of health.

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Conflict of interest statement

No financial or non-financial benefits have been received or will be received from any party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

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