Abnormal birth weight, particularly low birth weight (LBW), is known to have long-term adverse health consequences in adulthood, with disrupted sleep being suggested as a mediator or modifier of this link. We thus aimed to assess the associations between birth weight and self-reported adult sleep characteristics: sleep duration, difficulty waking up in the morning, daily nap frequency, sleep problems at night, snoring, daytime tiredness or sleepiness, and ever-stop breathing during sleep. This cross-sectional analysis used the United Arab Emirates Healthy Future Study data collected from February 2016 to March 2023 involving 2124 Emiratis aged 18-61 years. We performed a Poisson regression under unadjusted and age-sex-and-BMI-adjusted models to obtain the risk ratio and its 95% confidence interval for our analysis of the association between birth weight and each adult sleep characteristics, compared to individuals with normal birth weight (≥2.5 kg). Those with LBW had significantly a 17% increased risk of difficulty waking up in the morning, compared to those with normal birth weight. In addition, females with LBW history were also at an increased risk of reporting difficulty waking up in the morning. Studies with objective sleep assessments that include measurements of more confounding factors are recommended to confirm these risks.
Keywords: UAE Healthy Future Study; United Arab Emirates; birth weight; epidemiology; global health; prenatal exposure delayed effects; sleep characteristics.