Nighttime snacking is associated with risk of obesity and hyperglycemia in adults: a cross-sectional survey from Chinese adult teachers

Relationship between nighttime snack and human health conditions remains unclear. In this paper, we analyzed the association of frequency of nighttime snacking with obesity, hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia using a Chinese teacher cohort. The Chinese teacher study contains 22,176 of the general adult population operated on in 2015. Information of nighttime snacking frequency was acquired by questionnaire. Overweight and obesity outcome were assessed by body mass index (BMI), and hypertension; hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia were self-reported. Associations between nighttime snacking consumption and outcomes were performed with multivariat regression and further stratification analyses. We found a significant association (OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.24, 3.62; P for trend < 0.001) between most frequent nighttime snacking and hyperglycemia. A remarkable association was also observed between most frequent consumption of nighttime snack and obesity (OR 3.10, 95% CI 1.63, 5.89; P for trend < 0.001). The present results provide epidemiological evidence that consumption of nighttime snack was associated with obesity and hyperglycemia in Chinese adult teachers. However, the underlying mechanisms still need further investigation.