Relationship Between Sleep Deprivation and the Incidence of Overweight or Obesity in Chinese Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies

Overweight and obesity in adults have become a global public health problem. Epidemiological studies suggest that sleep duration may contribute to the incidence of overweight and obesity in all stages of life. China has an increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity, and sleep deprivation is common among Chinese adults. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the prospective relationship between insufficient sleep and the incidence of overweight or obesity in Chinese adults and estimate the risk. A systematic search was performed on June 6, 2021, of Embase, PubMed, and Web of Science. The exposure was the sleep duration, and the outcome measure was the incidence of overweight or obesity. The odds ratios, relative risks, hazard ratios, and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were extracted. Heterogeneity and publication bias of the studies were checked with a sensitivity analysis. Four studies fulfilled the criteria for inclusion. A total of 34,877 and 184,796 participants (Chinese men and women, age > 18 years) were included for the analyses of general and central obesities, respectively. The pooled relative risks for a short sleep duration were 1.06 (95% CI: 0.90, 1.25; I2 = 0.00) and 1.12 (95% CI: 1.07, 1.16, I2 = 0.00) for the incidence of general and central obesities, respectively. Studies showed no significant heterogeneity. In conclusion, this study showed that a short sleep duration was associated with the development of central obesity but not with that of general obesity in Chinese adults.