The influence of sleep duration on obesity in a subsample of Italian children

Introduction Childhood is a crucial period in life for the acquisition of healthy lifestyles, having a huge influence on risk factors for chronic diseases. The current lifestyle changes have increased the risk for obesity. One of these changes is sleep duration. There is evidence that children are sleeping less than previous generations, and it has been suggested that this may be contributing to the increasing prevalence of obesity. Our aim is to assess the relationship between sleep duration and obesity, including some other related behaviors. Material and methods A representative sample of 2838 children of 8 years, living in Tuscany Region (Italy) was investigated in one nutritional surveillance study run in 2002. Nutritional status was evaluated by weight and height measures collected by standardized personnel, using IOTF reference methods. Lifestyles were obtained by questionnaire submitted to parents. Results The mean night sleep time for our sample was 9.3±0.8 hours, quite 1 hour less than the recommended time for this age. An inverse relationship between sleep duration and obesity has been found (p=0.000); showing a 41.9% prevalence of obese and overweight among children who slept less than 8 hours, against a 28.7 % in those who have more than 10 hours of sleeping. The sleep duration could also been related to sedentary behavior and nutritional aspects. Sedentary kids show less sleep duration respected non sedentary ones (9.1±0.8 hours vs 9.4±0.8; p=0.000). At the same time those children who had a short sleep duration (<8 h) report more snacks eating respecting those who sleep >10 h (p<0.001). A higher educational level of the mother has a positive influence on the sleep duration, with increasing values. Conclusions An inverse association between childhood sleep time and BMI has been found. It is also seemed that sleep restriction in childhood is related to the time inactive of the children and the snacks eating with a negative impact on obesity. Due to the educational level of the mothers could have an influence on sleep duration, it seems important to concentrate efforts on their knowledge and awareness improvement

OKkIO alla SALUTE: promozione della salute e crescita sana nei bambini della scuola primaria [Promotion of healthy life style and growth in primary school children (OKkio alla SALUTE)]

In October 2007, the Italian Ministry of Health, the Centre for Disease Control and the Regions entrusted the National Institute of Health with the coordination of the initiative "Okkio alla Salute"--Promotion of healthy lifestyle and growth in primary school children. This programme is linked to the European programme "Gaining health" and the National Plan for Prevention. The objective of the project was to develop and maintain a monitoring system for both the health services and the schools that could also be used to better target public health interventions. The first national survey to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and to collect information on diet and physical activity has been conducted in close collaboration with the individual regions. In the first nine months of the project, 1025 health workers and approximately 1500 school teachers have received training, and, using standardised methods, they have collected data and weighed and measured nearly 45000 third grade students (median age 8.8 years) in 2000 schools throughout the country. Participation rates have exceeded 95%. The results obtained to date indicate that the methodology is sustainable using existing health and educational resources and can be adopted as a national surveillance system

Strategie differenziate nelle popolazioni target: I bambini [Strategies for cardiovascular prevention in children]

L’obesità, insieme ad abitudini alimentari scorrette e comportamenti sedentari, rappresenta un fattore di rischio per le malattie cardiovascolari. Per programmare interventi di prevenzione dell’obesità infantile e valutarne l’efficacia è necessario disporre di validi sistemi di sorveglianza. OKkio alla SALUTE si inserisce in questo contesto con lo scopo di descrivere la variabilità geografica e l’evoluzione temporale della stato ponderale dei bambini delle scuole primarie in Italia, degli stili alimentari, della pratica dell’attività fisica1. Con OKkio alla SALUTE, l’Italia partecipa al progetto europeo European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative, coordinato dal WHO Regione Europea, che prevede indagini epidemiologiche ripetute a cadenza regolare sui bambini di età 6-9 anni che frequentano la scuola primaria. Nel contesto italiano, OKkio alla SALUTE è parte integrante del progetto “Sistema di indagini sui rischi comportamentali in età 6-17 anni” promosso e finanziato nel 2007 dal Centro Nazionale per la Prevenzione e il Controllo delle Malattie (CCM) del Ministero della Salute e affidato al coordinamento del Centro Nazionale di Epidemiologia, Sorveglianza e Promozione della Salute (CNESPS) dell’Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS)