Relação entre o estado nutricional e qualidade do sono em crianças durante a primeira infância

Abstract

Nutritional status and sleep are important dimensions of child growth and development and may be influenced by biological, behavioral, family, and environmental factors. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between nutritional status and sleep quality in children aged 4 to 6 years followed at the Center for Nutritional Recovery and Education (CREN), in Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil. This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study with a quantitative approach. The study included 12 parents or legal guardians of 12 children, whose sleep habits were assessed using the Portuguese version of the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ-PT). Nutritional status classification was obtained from records of the nutritional follow-up carried out by the CREN Nutrition Service. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Regarding nutritional status, 6 children (50%) were classified as eutrophic, 5 (42%) had malnutrition, and 1 (8%) was overweight. Regarding sleep, all 12 children (100%) had a total CSHQ-PT score equal to or above the cutoff of 41 points, indicating possible sleep habit problems. In the descriptive comparison according to nutritional status, children with malnutrition had a mean CSHQ-PT score of 56.60 points, eutrophic children had a mean score of 57.67 points, and the child with overweight had a score of 47.00 points. Descriptively, a higher mean CSHQ-PT score was not observed among children with malnutrition compared with eutrophic children. It is concluded that, in the descriptive analysis, sleep quality was not worse among children with malnutrition and that possible sleep habit problems were present in all children, regardless of nutritional classification. However, the small number of participants and the absence of inferential statistical analysis do not allow determination of the presence or absence of an association between nutritional status and sleep quality. The findings reinforce the importance of an integrated assessment of nutritional status and sleep habits in nursing care for children.