The gendered health consequences of persistent exposure to short sleep duration during adolescence

Introduction: Despite evidence that sleep duration is associated with adolescent health, there remain several gaps in the literature. Little is known about: (1) the extent to which persistent exposure to short sleep duration is associated with adolescent health and (2) whether this association varies by gender. Methods: Using six waves of longitudinal data from the 2011–2016 Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (N = 6147), this study examined whether persistent exposure to short sleep duration is related to two adolescent health outcomes (overweight status and self-rated health). Fixed effects models were estimated to account for individual-level heterogeneity. Results: Short sleep duration was associated with being overweight and self-rated health in different ways for boys and girls. Gender-stratified analysis suggests that, for girls, the risk of being overweight increased for 5 years in a row as short sleep duration persisted. Prolonged short sleep duration also resulted in a continued decline in girls' self-rated health. For boys, persistent exposure to short sleep duration predicted a lower likelihood of being overweight up to the fourth year, but then began to recover. No association between persistent exposure to short sleep duration and self-rated health was observed for boys. Conclusion: Persistent exposure to short sleep duration was found to be more harmful to the health of girls than boys. Promoting longer sleep duration during adolescence may be an effective intervention to improve adolescent health, especially for girls.