Sleep duration is associated with metabolic syndrome in adolescents and children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Studies on the associations between sleep duration and metabolic syndrome in adolescents and children have reported mixed results. To shed more light on this issue, we conducted this meta-analysis by synthesizing the results of previous studies.

METHODS: Studies were retrieved from PubMed, Ovid, Cochrane, and Embase from inception to October 2021. Fixed-effect models and random-effect models were used to analyse the effects of sleep time on metabolic syndrome in adolescents.

RESULTS: Data from 7 studies, including 13305 adolescents and children, were meta-analysed. Compared with the control group, short sleep durations were not associated with a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome in adolescents and children using a random-effect model (OR = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.48-1.37, I-squared = 56.5%, p = 0.378). Using a fixed-effect model on long sleep duration, it turned out to be statistically significant (OR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.38-0.76, I-squared = 0.0%, p < 0.001) as a protective factor compared with shorter sleep duration.

CONCLUSIONS: Long sleep duration, instead of short sleep duration, was significantly associated with a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome among adolescents and children.