Association of healthy beverage index with circadian rhythm and quality of sleep among overweight and obese women: a cross-sectional study

Purpose Circadian rhythm is a behavioral, physiological, and molecular change with a cycle length of approximately 24 h. Changes to the circadian rhythm can result in sleep difficulty. The healthy beverage index (HBI) is a holistic concept for evaluating the quality of overall beverage intake and its association with health-related outcomes in nutritional epidemiological studies. This study aimed to assess the relationship of HBI with circadian rhythm and sleep quality among overweight/obese women. Methods The current study was conducted among 208 overweight and obese women between 18–48 years in Tehran, Iran. We evaluated potential HBI with a valid food frequency questionnaire. Following standard procedures, trained personnel assessed anthropometric measures, blood samples, and other baseline characteristics. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the morning-eveningness questionnaire were applied to evaluate sleep quality and circadian rhythm respectively. Results The mean (SD) BMI for this study was 30.8 (4.2) kg/m 2 . We observed that subjects in the least tertile had significantly high levels of triglyceride ( p = 0.04) and low-density lipoprotein ( p = 0.009). High-density lipoprotein was significantly different across the tertiles ( p = 0.003). After adjusting for potential covariates, subjects in the second tertile of HBI had 5.07 odds of having the worst quality of sleep as compared to those in the third tertile, p < 0.05. We also observed a significant inverse association between the HBI and the “moderately evening type” participants (OR 0.86; 95% CI 0.68–0.99; p : 0.02) after adjusting for potential confounders. Conclusion Healthy beverage consumption may have the potential of improving sleep quality among overweight and obese subjects. Level of evidence Level IV, evidence obtained from a descriptive study.