Obesity and sleep duration among Latino manufacturing workers

Background/Objective: A growing body of research has demonstrated a link between obesity and sleep. Few studies, however, have explored that relationship exclusively among vulnerable populations, especially Latinos. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between obesity and sleep duration among Latino manufacturing workers in South Texas.

Methods: Surveys were administered to 228 Latino workers from eight manufacturing plants. Participants with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 were classified as obese. Sleep variable was measured as the self-reported average hours of sleep on weekdays classified into those who slept less than 6 hours a night vs. those sleeping 6 hours or more. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between obesity and sleep controlling for gender, education, age, marital status, income, physical activity levels, self-reported health status, and self-rated stress and quality of sleep.

Results: The majority of participants were men (72%). Mean age was 40.3 years (SD=10.7). Participants slept an average of 6.6 hours on weeknights, with 16% of respondents reporting sleep durations less than 6 hours. Close to half of the workers (44%) were obese. Logistic regression results indicated that workers who slept less than 6 hours on weeknights were significantly more likely to be obese (OR: 3.04, 95% CI: 1.34-6.91). Other factors associated with obesity were physical inactivity (OR: 1.99, 95% CI: 1.10-3.61) and poor/fair overall health (OR: 2.60, 95% CI: 1.31-5.17).

Conclusion: Results support an association between obesity and sleep duration, suggesting that the fight against obesity may have to address sleep habits. Implications within the population of manufacturing workers have to be evaluated within the context of shift work which may be a factor impacting the duration and quality of sleep.