TY - JOUR T1 - Does an intervention that improves infant sleep also improve overweight at age 6? Follow-up of a randomised trial JF - Archives of Disease in Childhood JO - Arch Dis Child SP - 526 LP - 532 DO - 10.1136/adc.2010.196832 VL - 96 IS - 6 AU - Wake, Melissa AU - Price, Anna AU - Clifford, Susan AU - Ukoumunne, Obioha C AU - Hiscock, Harriet Y1 - 2011/06/01 UR - http://adc.bmj.com/content/96/6/526.abstract N2 - Objective Short sleep duration may contribute to childhood obesity. Amenable to intervention, sleep thus provides a potential path for prevention. The authors aimed to determine the impact of a behavioural intervention that successfully reduced parent-reported infant sleep problems on adiposity at age 6. Design 5-year follow-up of a previously reported population-based cluster randomised trial. Participant allocation was concealed to researchers and data collection blinded. Setting Recruitment from well-child centres in Melbourne, Australia. Participants 328 children (174 intervention) with parent-reported sleep problems at age 7–8 months drawn from 49 centres (clusters). Intervention Behavioural sleep strategies delivered over one to three structured individual nurse consultations from 8 to 10 months, versus usual care. Main outcomes at age 6 years Body mass index (BMI) z-score, percentage overweight/obese and waist circumference. Analyses Intention-to-treat regression analyses adjusted for potential confounders. Results Anthropometric data were available for 193 children (59% retention) at age 6. There was no evidence of a difference between intervention (N=101) and control (N=92) children for BMI z-score (adjusted mean difference 0.2, 95% CI −0.1 to 0.4), overweight/obese status (20% vs 17%; adjusted OR 1.4, 95% CI 0.7 to 2.8) and waist circumference (adjusted mean difference −0.3, 95% CI −1.6 to 1.1). In posthoc analyses, neither infant nor childhood sleep duration were associated with anthropometric outcomes. Conclusions A brief infant sleep intervention did not reduce overweight/obesity at 6 years. Population-based primary care sleep services seem unlikely to reduce the early childhood obesity epidemic. Trial registration ISRCTN48752250 ER -