Objectives: The purpose of the current study was to examine the association between poor sleep health (ie, excessive daytime sleepiness), obesity sequelae (ie, percent overweight and serum leptin levels), and addictive-like eating behaviors, an obesity phenotype, in a sample of Black/African American (B/AA) adolescents.
Design: The current study analyzed archival baseline data from a sample of B/AA adolescents with obesity enrolled in a sequential randomized clinical trial.
Setting: Data were collected in the participants' homes by trained research assistants unaware of treatment condition.
Participants: A sample of 181 B/AA adolescents with obesity between the ages of 12 and 16 years (M = 14.26, SD = 1.46) and having a body mass index (BMI) above the 95th percentile for age and gender were sampled.
Measurements: Self-report measures included the Cleveland Adolescent Sleepiness Questionnaire and the Yale Food Addiction Scale-Children (YFAS-C). Anthropomorphic data and blood samples were used to determine BMI and serum leptin levels, respectively.
Results: Excessive daytime sleepiness was positively correlated with YFAS-C symptom count, r = 0.295, P < .001. Serum leptin levels and percent overweight were both positively correlated with each other, r = 0.445, P < .001 and with YFAS-C symptom count, r = 0.215, P = .006. After controlling for age and gender, results supported an indirect effect from daytime sleepiness to both serum leptin levels (estimate = 2.210, SE = 0.932, P = .018) and percent overweight (estimate = 2.817, SE = 1.415, P = .046) through YFAS-C symptom count.
Conclusions: Culturally informed interventions on eating behaviors (ie, addictive-like eating) when excessive daytime sleepiness is reported are needed. Early intervention may help prevent the onset or worsening of obesity among adolescents.
Keywords: Addictive-like eating; Obesity; Obesity phenotype; Overweight; Sleep health.
Published by Elsevier Inc.