Overweight in adolescents: a possible association between sleep quality and eating behavior according to sex.

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity is a multifactorial disease affecting adolescent sleep quality and binge eating. Objective: to analyze adolescents' sleep quality and possible binge eating according to sex and nutritional status. Methods: 108 adolescents (n = 51 male and n = 57 female) aged between 10 to 18 years were recruited. Body composition was assessed bioimpedance, in which the following variables were collected: body weight, percentage of fat mass, and resting metabolic rate. The Z-score was measured and classified by height and weight in eutrophic and overweight. Subsequently, the adolescents answered the Brazilian version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire and the binge eating - Periodic Eating Compulsion Scale (BES) questionnaire to assess possible periodic eating compulsion. Results: In the anthropometric analysis, male adolescents showed greater height (p<0.0001), body weight (p<0.05), resting metabolic rate (p<0.0001), total body water (p<0.0001), lean mass (p<0.0001), fat-free mass (p<0.0001) and skeletal muscle mass (p= 0.01) compared to female adolescents. However, female adolescents had a higher percentage of fat mass when compared to male adolescents (p= 0.01). In addition, overweight adolescents of both sexes had higher BES scores compared to eutrophic ones (p<0.05), with higher scores for females compared to males (p<0.05). However, no differences were observed between overweight and eutrophic individuals of both sexes for PQSI (p>0.05). Conclusion: Binge eating was identified in both sexes and may be related to poor sleep quality.