Habitual snoring in primary schoolchildren: prevalence, risk factors and school performance

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to determine the prevalence of snoring in primary school children in Sivas city and to evaluate the nighttime and daytime symptoms and learning problems that may be associated with sleep problems in these children. Subjects and Methods: The questionnaire was distributed to children by their teachers at the school and was filled out by their parents. Results: Of the 2196 given questionnaires, 1952 (88.7%) were filled in adequately and were included in the evaluation. Of the students, 50.9% were girls and 49.1% were boys. The mean age of the students was 10.27 +/- 2.25 years. The prevalence of habitual snoring was 4.9%. Occasional snoring and habitual snoring were significantly more prevalent in the boys than in the girls. Habitual snorers had significantly more nighttime symptoms, such as witnessed apneas (odds ratio [OR], 22.07; 95% confidence interval [CI]; 8.64-563.4), difficulty breathing (OR, 68.46; CI, 12.11-290.76), nocturnal enuresis (OR, 4.12; CI, 1.49-11.33), compared to never snorers. There were also increased prevalence of daytime symptoms, such as falling asleep while watching television (OR, 4.67; CI, 2.63-8.26) and morning headache (OR, 4.53; CI, 2.31-8.87). The presence of predisposing factors (frequent colds, frequent tonsillitis, hay fever, and history of tonsillectomy, etc.) increased the likelihood of habitual snoring. Conclusion: Both nighttime symptoms (apnea, difficulty breathing, restless sleep, nightmares, bruxism, etc.) and daytime symptoms (falling asleep in public places, morning headache, etc.) were highly correlated with habitual snoring in children and habitual snoring was related with parent-reported poor school performance.