Food Insecurity and Sleep Disturbance Among 223,561 Adolescents: A Multi-Country Analysis of Cross-Sectional Surveys

• Main Author: Qiuying Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-10-01
• Series: Frontiers in Public Health
• Subjects: food insecurity; hunger; sleep; adolescents; global issue
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.693544/full

This study was to investigate the association between food insecurity (FI) and sleep disturbance among adolescents. Based on the cross-sectional data of the Global School-based Student Health Survey, this study analyzed self-reported data from adolescents in 68 countries. Multivariate logistic regression and meta-analysis were used to evaluate the association between FI and sleep disturbance. The final sample included 223,561 adolescents. The prevalence of severe FI and sleep disturbance was 6.4% and 8.0%, respectively. Severe FI was significantly associated with a higher risk of sleep disturbance in 48 of the 68 countries after adjusting for covariates, with a pooled OR (95% CI) of 1.94 (1.79–2.09). Overall, the association between FI and sleep disturbance was similar across countries and gender, though a large level of heterogeneity existed across upper- and middle-income countries. Identifying adolescents suffering from FI and remedying the FI severity may be important to improve sleep quality in global adolescents.