Researchers studied 176 teenagers prone to staying up late, aged 10 to 18, in a sleep treatment trial. Every teen was already at risk in at least one area of health. ADHD was part of the selection criteria: a teen could meet the behavioral at risk criterion through an ADHD diagnosis or medication, high sensation seeking, or alcohol or substance abuse. Only pretreatment data were used, so this is a snapshot and cannot show cause.
Each teen got a sleep health score out of six parts, from a sleep diary and self report: regularity, satisfaction, alertness, timing, efficiency and duration. Complete scores existed for 175. Duration was rated poor most often, in 68.07% of the teens.
For each extra point on the score, emotional risk was lower, and that result was statistically significant. Thinking domain risk moved the same way. So did social domain risk. Odds of obesity were lower too. The authors said sleep health was not linked to body mass index as a continuous measure. The behavioral domain pointed the same way without reaching significance. So did the physical domain. A separate measure of physical symptoms did track sleep health. One result ran the other way: more romantic relationship problems, which the authors call uncertain.
The numbers Stats and what the terms mean
The statistics behind the plain-language claims above.
- Dong, 2019: change for each extra point on the sleep health score: emotional risk b = −0.19 (p < .001); thinking domain risk b = −0.13; social domain risk b = −0.09; behavioral domain b = −0.07; physical domain b = −0.08; physical symptoms b = −0.76; romantic relationship problems b = 0.22. Odds of obesity OR = 0.60.
What the terms mean:
- p is the chance of seeing a gap at least this big if there were no real difference. Below .05 is usually read as unlikely to be chance alone.
- OR (odds ratio) here shows how the odds of an outcome changed for each one-point rise in the score. 1 means no change, and below 1 means lower odds.
- b shows how much one measure changed for each one-point change in another, in a statistical model. A minus sign means it went down.
Source: Dong L, Martinez A, Buysse D, et al.. A composite measure of sleep health predicts concurrent mental and physical health outcomes in adolescents prone to eveningness. Sleep Health (2019). doi:10.1016/j.sleh.2018.11.009