The Effect of Sleep Duration and Relief of Fatigue after Sleep on the Risk of Injury at School among Korean Adolescents

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To explore the association between sleep and the risk of accidental injury at school among Korean adolescents. METHODS: From the database of the Ninth Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBS), the researcher selected 63,307 adolescents who responded to a survey on sleep hours. We conducted logistic regression with sleep duration and fatigue after sleep as independent variables, the risk of injury at school as a dependent variable, and gender, grade, school type, economic status, parents' education level, number of participations in physical education, and current smoking and drinking as control variables. RESULTS: Using 9 hours of sleep as the reference, the adjusted injury risk (odds ratio) was 1.74 for those sleeping less than 5 hours a day, 1.61 for 5 hours, 1.45 for 6 hours, 1.31 for 7 hours, 1.13 for 8 hours, and 1.40 for 10 hours or longer. The difference between each pair of groups was statistically significant. In this study, injury risk increased as sleep duration decreased and fatigue after sleep increased. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that a short nightly duration of sleep and fatigue after sleep can be considered potential risk factorsfor unintentional injuries at school among Korean adolescents.