Sleep Duration and Obesity: Public Health, Research Paper Example

Obesity persists to be the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States, and if the problem fails to be addressed, experts predict that it will overtake tobacco as the leading cause of preventable death by the year 2020. The burden of escalating obesity rates on human health on human health is devastating, as mortalities continue to climb as a result of health problems such as diabetes and various types of cancers spawned. As such, researchers continue searching for ways to quell the current obesity epidemic through behavioral changes. Ford et al. (2014) conducted a study on the correlation between sleep duration and waist size in  order to ascertain whether or not the amount of sleep one gets is connected to people’s waist sizes. Moreover, they ascertained whether or not differences existed according to gender, race, or ethnicity. This research study ascertains whether or not sleep deprivation constitutes one etiology of obesity and overweight individuals.

Sleep is integral in the restorative function for human health, so researchers are interested in whether or not there is a connection between anthropometric measures of people’s waist and the duration of sleep they average per night. The authors designed a study in which they used data from 13,742 participants who were over the age of twenty and filled out the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between the years 2005-2010. The sleep duration ranged from the short sleepers who slept under 6 hours, to those who slept 7-9 hours, and long sleepers who slept for over ten hours. Results indicate that those who slept less averaged waistlines that had more girth and on average weighed more than those who slept for over ten hours. Participants who did not have a diagnosed sleeping order or depression exhibited a direct correlation between sleep duration and Body Mass Index and waist circumference in an inverse nature. Moreover, no differences according to gender, race, or ethnicity were found, so the authors concluded that those who slept less were more likely to have bigger waistlines regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity.

This study retains scholarly currency because it is nationally representative and uses a large sample population to draw conclusions about obesity trends and human behaviors. Because no differences were noted amongst various races, ethnicities, and genders, the authors recommend that people increase the duration of their sleep in order the buck the trend of larger waistlines with few hours of sleep. No methodical intervention is provided in this study to provide a corrective for the identified problem, yet the study suggests that interventions to enhance sleep especially in young adults in their twenties are necessary in order to impact this public health problem.

References

Ford, E.S., Chaoyang, L., Wheaton, A.G., Chapman, D.P., Perry, G.S., & Croft, J.B. (2014). Sleep duration and body mass index and waist circumference among U.S. adults. Obesity, 22(2), 599-607.

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