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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sleep Sci
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1782178
Original Article

Short Sleep Duration and Skipping Main Meals among University Students

Jéssika Patatas de-Arruda
1   Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
,
Ana Paula Alves de-Souza
1   Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
,
Lídia Pitaluga Pereira
1   Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
,
Lorena Barbosa Fonseca 
1   Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
,
Patrícia Simone Nogueira
1   Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
2   Department of Collective Health, Instituto de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
,
Paulo Rogério Melo Rodrigues
1   Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
2   Department of Collective Health, Instituto de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
,
Ana Paula Muraro
1   Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
2   Department of Collective Health, Instituto de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
,
Márcia Gonçalves Ferreira
1   Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
2   Department of Collective Health, Instituto de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
› Author Affiliations Funding The authors declare that they have received no funding from agencies in the public, private or non-profit sectors for the conduction of the present study.
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Abstract

Introduction Admission to university influences lifestyle behaviors and is marked by a daily routine of accumulation of activities that can interfere with sleep duration, affecting food choices and meal consumption habits throughout the day.

Objective To analyze the association between short sleep duration and skipping main meals among university students.

Materials and Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study with 1,608 university students aged between 16 and 25 years, who were enrolled in full-time undergraduate courses at a public university in the Midwestern region of Brazil. Information on skipping breakfast, lunch, and dinner was collected through the question “On average, how often do you eat the following meals?”. Given the lack of a uniform criterion to define “skipping a meal”, in the present study, any answer that did not correspond to the daily consumption of the meal was classified as meal skipping, based on the recommendation of the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population. Short sleep duration was determined according to sleep time during the night (≤ 6 hours for those aged ≥18 years and ≤ 7 hours for those under 18 years of age). Associations were estimated using adjusted Poisson regression models.

Results The prevalences of skipping breakfast, lunch, and dinner were of 51.0%, 13.9%, and 35.6% respectively. Short sleep duration was observed in 27.2% of the study population. After adjusting for confounding variables, short sleep duration was positively associated with skipping breakfast (adjusted prevalence ratio [PRadj] = 1.20; 95% confidence interval [95%CI] = 1.08–1.34) and skipping lunch (PRadj = 1.64; 95%CI = 1.27–2.12).

Conclusion University students presented a high prevalence of skipping main meals. Short sleep duration was directly associated with skipping two major meals of the day: breakfast and lunch.

Keywords

meals - sleep duration - sleep deprivation - students

Ethical Aspects

The present research project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Hospital Universitário Júlio Müller Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, under opinion no. 1,006,048, of 03/31/2015. All participants were informed about the objectives of the study, and data collection was performed only after they had signed the Informed Consent Form.




Publication History

Received: 26 May 2023

Accepted: 14 January 2024

Article published online:
09 April 2024

© 2024. Brazilian Sleep Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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