Healthy Heart Project
The Healthy Heart Project is led by Dr. Jennifer McGrath's Pediatric Public Health Psychology Laboratory. Funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the project examines the links between childhood obesity and shorter sleep duration.
Childhood obesity is a worldwide health epidemic that over the last four decades has been mirrored by a decline in sleep duration. However, the question of how sleep contributes to the development of obesity remains largely unknown. Childhood obesity and sleep disturbances are influenced by contextual factors of neighbourhoods in which young people eat and sleep.
The Healthy Heart Project follows children from the age of 9 to 18 years old — as well as their parents. As part of the study, Dr. McGrath and her team are examining health behaviors, height, weight, body fat, blood pressure, detailed sleep patterns, physical activity, stress through cortisol measurements, and fat levels through blood. Neighbourhood economic and safety information is gathered from the Canadian Census data. We are currently pilot testing measurements of neighbourhood physical characteristics, such as noise levels and light pollution.
The goal of the Healthy Heart Project is to better understand the links between poor childhood sleep and obesity. In turn, these findings will impact parenting routines and recommended bedtimes for children; school board start times that promote better sleep hygiene; and, neighborhood safety campaigns and public health policy.
Childhood obesity is a worldwide health epidemic that over the last four decades has been mirrored by a decline in sleep duration. However, the question of how sleep contributes to the development of obesity remains largely unknown. Childhood obesity and sleep disturbances are influenced by contextual factors of neighbourhoods in which young people eat and sleep.
The Healthy Heart Project follows children from the age of 9 to 18 years old — as well as their parents. As part of the study, Dr. McGrath and her team are examining health behaviors, height, weight, body fat, blood pressure, detailed sleep patterns, physical activity, stress through cortisol measurements, and fat levels through blood. Neighbourhood economic and safety information is gathered from the Canadian Census data. We are currently pilot testing measurements of neighbourhood physical characteristics, such as noise levels and light pollution.
The goal of the Healthy Heart Project is to better understand the links between poor childhood sleep and obesity. In turn, these findings will impact parenting routines and recommended bedtimes for children; school board start times that promote better sleep hygiene; and, neighborhood safety campaigns and public health policy.