Total dietary sugar consumption does not influence sleep or behaviour in Australian children

Abstract

This study aimed to compare sugar intake in Australian children with current guidelines and determine if total sugar consumption as a percentage of energy (sugar %E) exacerbates the relationship between sleep and behaviour. A sample of 287 children aged 8–12 years (boys 48.8%, age: 10.7 ± 1.3 years), and their parents/guardians completed a battery of questionnaires. Children completed a food frequency questionnaire, and parents completed demographic, sleep, and behaviour questionnaires. Average sugar intake was 134.9 ± 71.7 g per day (sugar %E 26.0 ± 7.0%), and only 55 (19%) participants did not exceed the recommended sugar intake limit. Correlations and logistical regressions indicated that sugar %E was not associated with sleep or behavioural domains (r range = –0.07–0.08; p range = .173–.979) nor contributed to the prediction of sleep behaviour problems (p range = .16–.80). Whilst a high proportion of children consumed above the recommended amount of daily total sugar, total sugar consumption was not related to behavioural or sleep problems, nor affected the relationship between these variables.

Keywords:

• Total dietary sugar
• internalising behaviour
• externalising behaviour
• total behavioural problems
• sleep quality

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all of the families that participated and made this research possible and all the schools who assisted us. Furthermore, we would like to thank the students who assisted on this study: Lee Priestley, Marie Georgopoulos, Susan Ward, Stephanie Cheng, Susan Pfeiffer and Karen Hislop.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the University of South Australia’s Human Research Ethics Committee.

Additional information

Funding

E.J.W. was funded through a University of South Australia Post Graduate Award; otherwise this research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.