Poster #44 - Benefits of Sleep Health for Physical Wellbeing Among Low-SES Youth

• In Event: Poster Session 10

Abstract

Increasing attention is being paid to sleep health, the positive influences of sleep duration, quality, and consistency (Meltzer et al., 2021) on youth wellbeing (Matricciani et al., 2019). Importantly, youth from families with lower socioeconomic status (SES) are at increased risk of physical illness (Bjur et al., 2019; Buzek et al., 2019) relative to higher-SES peers. The present study tests family SES as a moderator of relations between indicators of sleep health and physical wellbeing among a socioeconomically diverse group of late adolescents. Assessing moderation effects are key to explicating for whom and under which conditions sleep is associated with adjustment in youth (El-Sheikh et al., 2022).

Three hundred twenty-six youth (M age = 17.39 years; 53% female; 41% Black, 59% White) living in the southeastern U.S. wore wrist actigraphs for one week at home during the school year. Examining multiple sleep parameters is recommended (Sadeh & El-Sheikh, 2015) and four well-recognized sleep parameters based on actigraphy were derived: duration (average nightly sleep minutes), quality (average nightly sleep efficiency and average number of long wake episodes greater than 5 minutes), and consistency (coefficient of variability in sleep minutes across the week). Mothers reported on family income and household size, which was used to calculate income-to-needs ratio, a common indicator of family SES (Diemer et al., 2013; Duncan et al., 2002). Mothers also reported on adolescents’ physical wellbeing using a single-item rating of general health (“In general, would you say this child’s health is excellent, good, fair, or poor;” Eisen, Donald, & Ware, 1980), with higher scores representing better wellbeing. Single-item ratings of general health have good correspondence to overall physical wellbeing (Macias et al., 2015; Verster et al., 2021). In independent path models controlling for sex, race, age and zBMI, physical wellbeing was regressed onto each indicator of sleep health, SES, and Sleep Health x SES interactions.

All associations between sleep and physical health were moderated by family SES. Simple slopes tests indicated that higher sleep efficiency, fewer long-wake episodes, and more consistent sleep minutes were independently associated with better physical wellbeing among adolescents from low-SES families (Figure 1). At optimal levels of all sleep variables, SES differences in physical wellbeing were minimal.

Findings build evidence that sleep health positively contributes to physical wellbeing, especially for low-SES youth. Clinicians and other service providers working with youth might benefit from considering the role of sleep in prevention and interventions programs geared towards improving health.

Authors

• Brian T. Gillis, Auburn University
  Presenting Author

• Leanna McWood, North Dakota State University

• Emily Brigham, Auburn University

• Ekjyot Kaur Saini, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Mona M El-Sheikh, Auburn University