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Longitudinal epidemiological study of subjective sleep quality in Japanese adolescents to investigate predictors of poor sleep quality

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Abstract

To clarify the predictors of poor sleep quality in Japanese adolescents. In 2010, baseline surveys were administered to students at 24 randomly selected schools—10 junior high schools and 14 senior high schools—in Japan. After 2 years, follow-up surveys were administered to the same students. The questionnaires included the following five items: basic attributes, sleep status, lifestyle factors, social relationships, and mental health status. Only participants without “poor sleep quality” at baseline were included for analyses and the incidence proportion of poor sleep quality was calculated by observing the rate of poor sleep quality at follow-up. A total of 3473 students were included for analysis. During the 2 years leading to the follow-up study, the incidence proportion of poor sleep quality was 7.7% among junior high and 6.9% among senior high school students. Multivariate analyses revealed that factors associated with poor sleep quality were poor mental health, no extracurricular learning, and short sleep duration on weekdays in junior high school students and poor mental health, waking up at 7:00 or later on weekdays and short sleep duration on weekdays in senior high school students. In junior high school students, mental health status, extracurricular learning, and sleep duration could be predictors of poor sleep quality, whereas in senior high school students, mental health status, waking time, and sleep duration on weekdays could be predictors. The present findings suggest that sleep health should be promoted among junior and senior high school students.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are deeply grateful to the students and teachers of the junior and senior high schools for their cooperation. We wish to express our thanks to Mrs. Yukiko Abe for her help with this study.

Funding

This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (No. 21390208).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine, 30-1 Oyaguchi, Kami-cho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Yuuki Matsumoto, Yoshitaka Kaneita, Osamu Itani, Yuichiro Otsuka & Yu Kinoshita

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  1. Yuuki Matsumoto
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  2. Yoshitaka Kaneita
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  3. Osamu Itani
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  4. Yuichiro Otsuka
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  5. Yu Kinoshita
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Correspondence to Yoshitaka Kaneita.

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Conflict of Interest

Yuuki Matsumoto, Yoshitaka Kaneita, Osamu Itani, Yuichiro Otsuka, and Yu Kinoshita declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical considerations

Approval to conduct this study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Nihon University School of Medicine. Participation was voluntary, and all participants provided written informed consent.

Informed consent

The study was conducted with the consent of the principals of all participating schools.

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Matsumoto, Y., Kaneita, Y., Itani, O. et al. Longitudinal epidemiological study of subjective sleep quality in Japanese adolescents to investigate predictors of poor sleep quality. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 20, 87–96 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-021-00343-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-021-00343-8

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