An ibs.GRANADA study on sleep, nutrition and obesity is awarded by the EASP

The Andalusian School of Public Health awardca to the best Public Health article, delivered by RAMAO, this year it has gone to two of the more than 26 works that have been presented

This year one of the prizes went to a work by the Cancer Epidemiology research group of the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada (ibs.GRANADA), whose responsible researcher is María José Sánchez and the Ciber Epidemiology and Health research group Public (CYBERESP). The study on the analysis of circadian cycles, sleep and eating patterns and their relationship with obesity, reveals that the quality of sleep, people's chronotype and other factors related to the circadian clock could be related to the risk of obesity.

The Andalusian School of Public Health (EASP) award recognizes the best research in Public Health published in the previous year and is awarded at the opening ceremony of the course of the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Eastern Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla (RAMAO) . The award is funded by the Andalusian Society of Preventive Medicine, Public Health and Health Management with €1.500.

The study has been carried out on more than 40.000 Spaniards who belong to a powerful multicenter study that began in 1992, in which more than half a million people from 10 European countries and 23 centers participate. This is the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Study, of which the ibs.GRANADA research group mentioned above is a part, as a coordinating center in Granada and Spain, whose objective is to analyze the relationship between nutrition, lifestyle, environmental factors and the incidence of cancer, as well as other chronic diseases.

The research of this study on circadian rhythms in EPIC was carried out in Asturias, Gipuzkoa, Navarra, Granada and Murcia. In relation to people's chronotype, that is, the preference to carry out activities in the morning (morning chronotype) or late at night (evening chronotype), it was found that circadian clock genes are associated with chronotype. This study has also evaluated how the genetics of the circadian clock and chronotype influence changes in weight and obesity over time. According to the results found in this study, genetic predisposition to evening chronotype is associated with obesity from early adulthood to old age.

The award was collected by Esther Molina, researcher at the University of Granada, on behalf of the entire research team belonging to CIBERESP and ibs.GRANADA. The award-winning article was published in the Clinica Nutrition magazine.

More information about the group at https://www.ibsgranada.es/grupos-de-investigacion/a17-epidemiologia-cancer/