Drs. Alamian, Wang, and Alums Author Article on Future Childhood Obesity

Dr. Arsham Alamian and Dr. Liang Wang, Assistant Professors in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, have published an article in Preventive Medicine Reports.   Co-authors on the paper include three Master of Public Health in Epidemiology alumni: Amber M. Hall, Melanie Pitts, and Joseph Ikekwere.  The article, "Infant Sleep Problems and Childhood Overweight: Effects of Three Definitions of Sleep Problems", was supported by a Research Development Committee (RDC) Major Grant. 

Using prospective data for almost 900 children in the multi-site Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, collected between 1991 and 2004, the authors investigated and compared the longitudinal relationship between different definitions of infant childhood sleep problems, and weight status in late childhood. After adjusting for birth weight, race, sex, breastfeeding, poverty, family structure, and maternal education, children with a history of sleep problems were found to be overweight in Grade 6 using Zukerman et al.’s or Richman’s definitions, but not using Lozoff et al.’s definition of sleep problems.

"Differences observed in the associations between sleep problems, as defined by the definitions investigated, and being overweight in Grade 6 are likely due to differential aspects of sleep behaviors assessed during infancy, and the operationalization of sleep problems, by these definitions," said Dr. Alamian.

Findings of this study emphasize the need to construct a single definition of infant sleep problems in order to determine if there is a link between sleep disturbances in infancy and the risk of childhood overweight or obesity.