NCT04302922: ChroNuCohort

Association Between the Individual Chronotype and Body Composition in German Students - The ChroNu Study

Completed Last updated 3 April 2024

What this trial tests

trial in Healthy in 327 participants. Completed in 28 February 2023.

Timeline

1 September 2019

Primary endpoint
29 February 2020

28 February 2023

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Paderborn University
Status	Completed
Study type	OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment	327
Start date	1 September 2019
Primary completion	29 February 2020
Estimated completion	28 February 2023
Sites	1 location across Germany

Conditions studied

• Healthy — all drugs for Healthy →

Sponsor

Paderborn University

Who can join

Adults 18 to 25, any sex, with Healthy. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Chronotype is defined as the midpoint of sleep and describes a biological construct of an organism's temporal organisation. Misalignment between the individual chronotype and socially determined schedules may result in a phenomenon called "social jetlag". Emerging evidence indicates that both, a later chronotype and/or a substantial "social jetlag" adversely affects metabolic health. Young adults may be particularly vulnerable to these exposures since the chronotype progressively delays from adolescence until early adulthood (approx. 20 years of age) before it advances again. Simultaneously, education in institutions or working hours starts early during the day, potentially contribute to substantial "social jetlag". Data on the development of overweight / obesity prevalence in Germany indicates that rates are now constant or declining in most adult age groups, with the clear exception of young adults, in whom rates continue to be on the rise. Nonetheless, the potential contribution of chronotype and/or social jetlag to this secular trend has not been addressed in Germany. Hence, the hypothesis of the ChroNu cohort is that individual chronotype and social jetlag are predictors of (changes in) the body composition in young adulthood (ages 18-25 years) and that changes in chronotype / social jetlag will result in changes in body composition. The ChroNu cohort forms part of the overall ChroNu study, which addresses the hypothesis that timing of food intake which diverges from the individual chronotype constitutes a characteristic of social jetlag which has adverse short- and long-term consequences for metabolic health (see The ChroNustudy). This study will recruit 300 healthy, non-obese students aged 18-25 years enrolled at Paderborn University until February 2020 and follow these up one year later. Chronotype and social jetlag will be determined using the validated MCTQ. Body composition will be assessed by bioimpedance analysis (BIA) The ChroNu cohort study will reveal important information on the relevance of a biologically determined phenomenon, i.e. the chronotype and the potentially resultant social jetlag for body composition development in a population vulnerable to increases in body fat.

Publications & conference data

2 peer-reviewed publications reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. The association of chronotype and social jet lag with body composition in German students: The role of physical activity behaviour and the impact of the pandemic lockdown.
   Krueger B, Stutz B, Jankovic N, Alexy U, et al · · 2023 · cited 14× · PMID 36630357 · DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0279620
2. 58^th EASD Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes : Stockholm, Sweden, 19 - 23 September 2022.
   · 2022 · cited 6× · PMID 35920845 · DOI 10.1007/s00125-022-05755-w