[Sleep Duration Among School-age Children in Hungary and Romania]

Introduction: Children's sleep duration is decreasing in the last decade. Despite of the well known negative consequences, there are no data on children's sleep duration in Hungary and Romania.

Aim: The aim of the authors was to assess sleep duration of school-age children in Hungary and Romania.

Method: A self-edited questionnaire was used for the study. 2446 children were enrolled. All elementary and secondary schools in a Hungarian city, and one elementary and secondary school in a Romanian city took part in the study.

Results: Mean sleep duration was 8.3 ± 1.2 hours on weekdays. There was a significant difference between the two countries (Hungary vs. Romania, 8.5 ± 1.2 hours vs. 7.8 ± 0.9 hours, p = 0.001). Age correlated with sleep duration on weekdays (r= -0.605, p = 0.001), but not during weekend.

Conclusions: This is the first study on children's sleep duration in Hungary and Romania. The difference between countries may be due to the difference in mean age or cultural and/or geographical differences.