Annalijn Conklin

Background: Sleep deficits, which include social jetlag, poor sleep quality, and short sleep duration, have been commonly observed in adolescents due to development-specific late chronotype, early school start time, and other physiological and environmental factors. Recent findings indicate that sleep is potentially associated with unhealthy eating habits, such as frequent consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB). The associations may also differ by gender. This thesis examined the gender-specific associations between three different types of sleep deficits and SSB consumption among adolescents. Methods: This thesis used a cross-sectional study design and included 1031 adolescents from Wave 6 (Spring 2012) of the British Columbia Adolescent Substance Use Survey (BASUS) (mean age: 15±0.7 years). Descriptive statistics analyzed the prevalences of self-reported sleep deficits and SSB consumption by gender. Multivariable logistic regression models using interaction terms examined the associations between each sleep deficit variable and three measures of SSB consumption, by gender. Additional confounders were included in the sensitivity analyses to test the robustness of results. Results: Compared to no social jetlag (≤ 1h), consistent positive associations of higher social jetlag levels were observed with above-median (OR 1.63 (95% CI: 1.01, 2.65)) and any weekly SSB intake (1.97 (1.06, 3.66)) in girls; boys showed a similar positive but non- statistically significant OR trend with any SSB intake. Non-significant positive associations were seen between more frequent restless sleep and daily SSB intake in girls, but only boys with occasional restless sleep (1-2 days/week) had significantly higher odds of any SSB intake (3.21 (1.31, 7.88)), compared to no restless sleep (
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