Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 53, Issues 4–5, October–November 2011, Pages 271-273
Preventive Medicine

Relationships between hours of sleep and health-risk behaviors in US adolescent students

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2011.06.020Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To examine associations between insufficient sleep (< 8 h on average school nights) and health-risk behaviors.

Methods

2007 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey data of U.S. high school students (n = 12,154) were analyzed. Associations were examined on weighted data using multivariate logistic regression.

Results

Insufficient sleep on an average school night was reported by 68.9% of students. Insufficient sleep was associated with higher odds of current use of cigarettes (age-adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.45–1.93), marijuana (AOR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.31–1.76), and alcohol (AOR, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.46–1.84); current sexual activity (AOR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.25–1.59); seriously considered attempting suicide (AOR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.60–2.16); feeling sad or hopeless (AOR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.43–1.84); physical fighting (AOR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.24–1.60), not being physically active at least 60 min  5 days in the past 7 days (AOR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.04–1.29), using the computer ≥ 3 h/day (AOR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.38–1.80), and drinking soda/pop > 1 time/day (AOR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.03–1.28).

Conclusion

Two-thirds of adolescent students reported insufficient sleep, which was associated with many health-risk behaviors. Greater awareness of the impact of sleep insufficiency is vital.

Highlights

► 68.9% of U.S. high school students reported insufficient sleep. ► Insufficient sleep was associated with a variety of health-risk behaviors. ► Variations by race and sex in these associations were found.

Section snippets

Survey

The national YRBS is a biennial, self-administered survey of US high school students. A three-stage cluster sample design was used to produce data representative of students in grades 9–12 in public and private schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The 2007 school response rate was 81%; student response rate was 84%; and overall response rate was 68%. Each student record was weighted to adjust for school and student non-response and oversampling of black and Hispanic students.

Results

Approximately half (49.7%) of the total sample (N = 12,154) was female. The majority of students were non-Hispanic white (62.7%) and reported sleeping 7 h (30.2%) on an average school night (Table 1). More than two-thirds (68.9%) reported insufficient sleep (< 8 h) on an average school night. The prevalence of health-risk behaviors among study participants is indicated in Table 1 and similar to estimates for the overall 2007 national YRBS sample reported elsewhere (CDC, 2008).

Insufficient sleep was

Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first large sample, nationally representative study of adolescents to examine associations between self-reported insufficient sleep on an average school night and selected health-risk behaviors and to examine if those associations varied by sex and race. These associations may be due to the impact of chronic sleep insufficiency on cognition, decreasing adolescents' ability to comprehend consequences of risk behaviors or increasing susceptibility to peer pressure (

Conclusions

More than two-thirds of US high school students report insufficient sleep on an average school night which is associated with a variety of health-risk behaviors. Continued national surveillance and research examining sleep duration and associated factors among adolescents is needed.

Disclaimer

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Financial disclosures and conflicts of interest statement

No authors have any financial disclosures or conflicts of interest to report. All authors are U.S. Government employees whose work falls within the public domain.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

References (13)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

View full text