Sleep duration and health correlates among university students in 26 countries

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate sleep duration and its health correlates in university students from 26 low-, middle- and high-income countries. Using anonymous questionnaires and anthropometric measurements, data were collected from 19417 undergraduate university students (mean age 20.8, SD = 2.8) from 27 universities from 26 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas. Results indicate that the average number of self-reported hours of sleep was 7.07 (CI = 7.04–7.09), with the prevalence of reporting ≤6, 7–8, and ≥9 h sleep duration of 39.2, 46.9, and 13.9%, respectively. Multinomial logistic regression found that sociodemographic variables, health risk behaviour and health status variables were found to be associated with short and long sleep duration.

Keywords:

• short sleep
• long sleep
• prevalence
• sociodemograhics
• health risk behaviour
• health status
• university students

Financial disclosures

There are no conflicts of interest for any of the authors.

Authorship

KP and SP designed, oversaw data collection, analysed and wrote the manuscript.

Acknowledgements

The following colleagues participated in this student health survey and contributed to data collection (locations of universities in parentheses) Bangladesh: Gias Uddin Ahsan (Dhaka); Barbados: T. Alafia Samuels (Bridgetown); Cameroon: Jacques Philippe Tsala Tsala (Yaounde); China: Tony Yung and Xiaoyan Xu (Hong Kong and Chengdu); Colombia: Carolina Mantilla (Pamplona); Egypt: Alaa Abou-Zeid (Cairo); Grenada: Omowale Amuleru-Marshall (St. George); India: Krishna Mohan (Visakhapatnam); Indonesia: Indri Hapsari Susilowati (Jakarta); Ivory Coast: Issaka Tiembre (Abidjan); Jamaica: Caryl James (Kingston); Kyrgyzstan: Erkin M Mirrakhimov (Bishkek); Laos: Vanphanom Sychareun (Vientiane); Madagascar: Onya H Rahamefy (Antananarivo); Mauritius: Hemant Kumar Kassean (Réduit, Moka); Namibia: Pempelani Mufune (Windhoek); Nigeria: Solu Olowu (Ile-Ife); Pakistan: Rehana Reman (Karachi); Philippines: Alice Ferrer (Miagao); Russia: Alexander Gasparishvili (Moscow); Singapore: Mee Lian Wong (Singapore); South Africa: Tholene Sodi (Polokwane); Thailand: Tawatchai Apidechkul (Chiang Rai); Tunisia: Hajer Aounallah-Skhiri (Tunis); Turkey: Neslihan Keser Özcan (Istanbul); Venezuela: Yajaira M Bastardo (Caracas).

Additional information

Funding

Partial funding for this study was provided by the South African Department of Higher Education.