Association between Sleeping Duration and Health‑Related Behaviors in College Student

Introduction: Although the past studies have presented differences between sleep duration and health‑related behavior, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have considered the different dimensions of adolescent health‑related behavior according to gender. The current study aims to investigate the association between sleep duration and health‑related behavior in both genders. Method: A cross‑sectional study was conducted in a college in southern Taiwan. We used convenience sampling and invited all undergraduate full‑time students in their 3rd year to participate in this study in 2014. There were three parts in our questionnaire, including participant’s characteristics, the Adolescent Health Promotion (AHP) scale, and medication consumption habits. The participants were classified into two groups according to their sleep duration ( 7 h vs. ≥7 h). We examined the predictors of sleep duration through the use of logistic regression analysis with the six AHP dimensions and unsafe medicine consumption habits as independent variables, respectively. Results: Using our whole sample, sufficient sleep duration was associated with higher AHP scores on nutrition and stress management and less unsafe medicine consumption habits (P 0.05). For both males and females, sleeping more than 7 h was associated with better stress management (P 0.01). Conclusions: Students whose sleeping duration was ≥7 h had a greater tendency to have good nutritional behavior and stress management behavior than those whose sleeping duration was 7 h. Moreover, students with insufficient sleep may have a significantly greater tendency to have unsafe medicine consumption habits.