ESPE Abstracts

Aim: to study sleep quality, using accelerometry in children and adolescents with abdominal obesity after a multidisciplinary intervention.

Patients, Material and Methods: we included 122 children and adolescents, range age: 7 to 16 years old, diagnosed with abdominal obesity (waist circumference > p90) who participated in an 8-week intervention program to lose weight, with a 2-year follow-up period. Participants were divided in 2 groups: intervention and control. The intervention group was treated with a hypocaloric Mediterranean diet and the control group followed the food guide pyramid (SENC, 2007). Throughout the intervention, all participants were encouraged to increase their physical activity by 200 minutes per week at 60-75% of their maximum heart rate. Sleep was assessed by accelerometry (wActisleep-BT, Actlife6 program) at the beginning of the study, at week 8 and at years 1 and 2. The anthropometric parameters analyzed were: weight, body mass index, hip and waist circumferences. The sleep parameters analyzed were: number of awakenings, total sleep time and the sleep efficiency. STATA 12.0 was used for the statistical analysis.

Results: the anthropometric parameters improved (P<0,03) both at week 8 and at year 1 and 2 follow-up. In the children group, a tendency to improve sleep quality was observed after the intensive phase. In the adolescents group total sleep time improved (27,09; SD= 11,10; P<0,02) as did the number of awakenings (1,70; DE: 0,65; P=0,001) at week 8. The number of awakenings was greater in adolescents than in children at week 8 (1,95; SD= 0,61; P=0,002). At 1 year follow-up, the number of awakenings decreased (P=0,006) and the total sleep time increased (P=0,006). At year 2 follow-up there was an association between weight and the number of awakenings (r=0,36; P=0,0122) and between the number of awakenings and waist circumference (r=0,43; P=0,028). The sleep efficiency improved at year 2 follow-up in comparison with baseline (2,72%, IC -3,93; -1,50, SD= 3,98; P<0,0001). There were no statistically significant differences in the sleep parameters in any phase of the study between control and intervention groups.

Conclusions: the significant change observed in the anthropometric variables which was observed at the end of intensive phase, remained throughout the follow-up. The significant improved in the sleep efficiency at year 2 follow-up in association with the tendency to decrease the number of awakenings and the increase in the total sleep time could contribute to decrease the cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents with central obesity.