Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24605819›Full record

Trial reportJournal of sleep research2014

Fatty acids and sleep in UK children: subjective and pilot objective sleep results from the DOLAB study--a randomized controlled trial.

Paul Montgomery, Jennifer R Burton, Richard P Sewell, Thees F Spreckelsen, Alexandra J Richardson

Open access · bronzeAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Journal of sleep research, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
40citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
5.6field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

40 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 71 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  7. Docosahexaenoic Acid and Arachidonic Acid Supplementation and Sleep in Toddlers Born Preterm: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2019
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  19. Promising Sources of Plant-Derived Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: A Narrative Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023
    Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Paul MontgomeryCentre for Evidence-Based Intervention, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Jennifer R Burton
Richard P Sewell
Thees F Spreckelsen
Alexandra J Richardson
University of Oxford · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Sleep problems in children are associated with poor health, behavioural and cognitive problems, as are deficiencies of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid. Theory and some evidence support a role for these fatty acids in sleep regulation, but this issue has received little formal investigation. We examined associations between blood fatty acid concentrations (from fingerstick blood samples) and subjective sleep (using an age-standardized parent questionnaire) in a large epidemiological sample of healthy children aged 7-9 years (n = 395) from mainstream UK schools. In a randomized controlled trial, we then explored whether 16-week supplementation (600 mg day(-1) ) with algal docosahexaenoic acid versus placebo might improve sleep in a subset of those children (n = 362) who were underperforming in reading. In a randomly selected subsample (n = 43), sleep was also assessed objectively via actigraphy. In 40% of the epidemiological sample, Child Sleep Habits Questionnaire scores indicated clinical-level sleep problems. Furthermore, poorer total sleep disturbance scores were associated weakly but significantly with lower blood docosahexaenoic acid (std coeff. -0.105*) and a lower docosahexaenoic acid : arachidonic acid ratio (std coeff. -0.119**). The treatment trial showed no significant effects on subjective sleep measures. However, in the small actigraphy subsample, docosahexaenoic acid supplementation led on average to seven fewer wake episodes and 58 min more sleep per night. Cautiously, we conclude that higher blood levels of docosahexaenoic acid may relate to better child sleep, as rated by parents. Exploratory pilot objective evidence from actigraphy suggests that docosahexaenoic acid supplementation may improve children's sleep, but further investigations are needed.

Indexed as

ActigraphyChildDocosahexaenoic AcidsFatty AcidsFatty Acids, Omega-3FemaleHealthy VolunteersHumansMaleParentsPilot ProjectsSleepSleep Wake DisordersSurveys and QuestionnairesUnited KingdomDocosahexaenoic AcidsFatty AcidsFatty Acids, Omega-3actigraphychildrendocosahexaenoic acidomega-3randomized controlled trialsleep

Identifiers

PMID24605819
PMCPMC4263155
OpenAlexW2041203810

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.