Abstract
Objective: Obesity is a serious public health issue which, in the long term, can significantly reduce quality of life. There is evidence of an association between increased BMI and chronic loss of sleep, and a number of hypotheses have been advanced to explain this. The objective of this study is to investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the residents of Almadina, Saudi Arabia, and assesses the relation between sleep duration and both BMI and gender.
Methods: Data was collected through an online survey using snowball technique. Data about sleep duration and quality, weight and height were obtained by self-report while BMI was measured objectively. Microsoft Excel was used for data entry, and the analysis was performed using SPSS version 20. Chi square test was used to assess the relation between the duration of sleep and both BMI and gender.
Results: Of the study's 398 participants, 50% were females and 50% were males. The mean age of participants was 31.43 (SD +/- 12.39), and the average of participants was overweight, with a mean BMI of 26.55 (SD +/- 7.105). No correlation was found between sleep duration and both BMI and gender.
Conclusion: Unlike most previous studies, these findings indicate no relation between short sleep duration and both BMI and gender for this population. However, the observed high rate of overweight among residents of Almadina points to a need for a primary prevention strategy to reduce obesity and its consequences.