Short sleep duration and latent classes of risk profiles among adolescents

Objective: In this study, we sought to identify latent classes of adolescents with distinct profiles of adverse mental and behavioral health, and to determine whether short sleep duration was associated with these classes. Methods: The 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data were propensity score matched with short sleep duration as the exposure. We performed latent class analysis (LCA) on 11 variables to classify adolescents into risk profiles. We used multinomial lo-gistic regression to determine whether short sleep duration was associated with these profiles. Results: LCA identified 5 latent classes labeled: low risk, high risk for adverse mental health, high risk for substance use, high risk for poor body image, and high risk overall. Students reporting short sleep duration were more likely to be in any of the high-risk classes, compared to their counterparts, after adjusting for demographic covariates. Conclusions: Five psychosocial risk profiles among adolescents were identified and the results showed strong associations between short sleep duration and these profiles. Thus, the importance of proper sleep habits should be emphasized among adolescents, especially for those exhibiting adverse and co-occurring mental and behavioral health.