Sleep problems and their association with weight and waist gain - The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil)

To evaluate the association of sleep problems with weight and waist size gain during four years of follow-up. We investigated 13,030 participants (35–74 years) of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil), a multicentric cohort conducted with civil servants from six academic institutions recruited between 2008 and 2010. Sleep problems were assessed at baseline by the Clinical Interview Schedule - Revised (CIS-R), designed to detect common mental disorders based on somatic, depressive and anxiety symptoms. Weight and waist size were measured at baseline and at follow-up (2012–2014). Large weight and waist size gain were defined as ≥ 90th percentile (≥1.65 kg/year and ≥2.41 cm/year, respectively). Sleep problems were associated with higher risk of a large weight gain (RR = 1.11; 95% CI 1.01–1.24) and large waist size gain (RR = 1.19; 95% CI 1.07–1.32), adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, income, educational level, investigation center, smoking, alcohol intake, dietary energy intake, leisure-time physical activity and body mass index (BMI) or waist circumference at baseline. After additional adjustment for common mental disorders the associations became non-significant (RR = 0.99; 95% CI 0.88–1.12; RR = 1.08; 95% CI 0.97–1.22, respectively). Sleep problems are associated with increased risk of developing large weight and waist size gain, but are not independently associated with common mental disorders.