Association between Body Mass Index and Sleep Duration amongst the Adult Assamese Population

Introduction and objective: Obesity is a public health issue with increasing incidence and prevalence all over the world. Among the all modifiable factors of obesity like diet, exercise, life style, sleep etc. Sleep is the most focused factor of obesity currently. Normal sleep duration has a high impact on body weight. Diet and exercise applied on the treatment of obesity are not always effective as expected. Therefore we can modify the sleep pattern as a part of obesity treatment. The objective of our study was to find the presence of positive association between decrease sleep duration and increased body mass index (BMI) if any and to apply adequate sleep as a part of treatment of obesity in the Assamese population. Material and method: 219 subjects participated in the current cross sectional study. BMI was calculated for each subject using the formula weight (kg)/squared height (m�). We considered as increased BMI value when it is greater than 25kg/m�. The average daily sleep duration were self reported as per study questionnaire. The association between sleep duration and BMI was statistically tested. Result: Out of the 219 participants 135 were male and 84 were female and all were within age group of 18 to 30 years. We observed a strong negative correlation between sleep duration and BMI In females and a moderately negative correlation between sleep duration and BMI in males. Overall we observed a moderately negative correlation between these two variables which show a significant result at Pless than0.05. Conclusion: Sleep duration is a potentially modifiable risk factor for obesity, which can be included in therapeutic approach and management of obesity. Early diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorder is important in obesity prevention.