Chen Mei-Yen, Wang Edward K, Jeng Yi-Jong
Nursing Department, Chang Gung Institute of Technology, Kwei-Shan, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
BMC Public Health. 2006 Mar 8;6:59. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-6-59.
Amount of sleep is an important indicator of health and well-being in children and adolescents. Adequate sleep (AS: adequate sleep is defined as 6-8 hours per night regularly) is a critical factor in adolescent health and health-related behaviors. The present study was based on a health promotion project previously conducted on adolescents in Tao-Yuan County, Taiwan. The aim was to examine the relationship between AS during schooldays and excessive body weight, frequency of visiting doctors and health-related behaviors among Taiwanese adolescents.
A cross-sectional study design, categorical and multivariate data analyses were used. The hypotheses investigated were: high frequency of AS is positively associated with lack of obesity and less frequent visits to doctors; and high frequency AS is positively associated with health-related behavior.
A total of 656 boys (53.2%) and girls (46.8%), ranging in age from 13-18 years were studied between January and June 2004. Three hundred and fifty seven subjects (54%) reported that they slept less than the suggested 6-8 hours on schooldays. A significant negative association was found between low sleep and of the following health-related behaviors: (1) life appreciation; (2) taking responsibility for health; (3) adopting healthy diet; (4) effective stress management; (5) regular exercise; and (6) total AHP score. High frequency AS was associated with low frequencies of obesity after potential confounding factors were controlled. Junior high school adolescents reported significantly higher frequencies of AS than high school participants. Gender, family structure, home location and frequency of television watching or computer use were not significantly associated with AS.
These findings support the proposition that AS is associated with good health status and high-frequency adoption of health-related behavior. Furthermore, these findings suggest that inadequate sleep may be a screening indicator for an unhealthy lifestyle and poor health status. The results might be useful for future research into the development of intervention strategies to assist adolescents who are not receiving enough hours of sleep.
睡眠时长是儿童和青少年健康及幸福的重要指标。充足睡眠（AS：充足睡眠定义为每晚规律睡眠6 - 8小时）是青少年健康及与健康相关行为的关键因素。本研究基于此前在台湾桃园县青少年中开展的一项健康促进项目。目的是探讨台湾青少年上学日的充足睡眠与超重、就医频率及与健康相关行为之间的关系。
采用横断面研究设计、分类及多变量数据分析。所研究的假设为：充足睡眠频率高与肥胖发生率低及就医频率低呈正相关；充足睡眠频率高与健康相关行为呈正相关。
2004年1月至6月对年龄在13 - 18岁的656名男孩（53.2%）和女孩（46.8%）进行了研究。357名受试者（54%）报告称他们在上学日睡眠时间少于建议的6 - 8小时。睡眠不足与以下健康相关行为之间存在显著负相关：（1）生活满意度；（2）对健康负责；（3）采用健康饮食；（4）有效管理压力；（5）定期锻炼；（6）总体健康促进得分。在控制潜在混杂因素后，充足睡眠频率高与肥胖发生率低相关。初中青少年报告的充足睡眠频率显著高于高中参与者。性别、家庭结构、家庭住址以及看电视或使用电脑的频率与充足睡眠无显著关联。
这些发现支持了充足睡眠与良好健康状况及高频率采用健康相关行为相关的观点。此外，这些发现表明睡眠不足可能是不健康生活方式和不良健康状况的一个筛查指标。这些结果可能对未来研究制定干预策略以帮助睡眠时长不足的青少年有用。
