Behavioral Problems and Neurocognitive Functioning in Snoring School-Aged Children

Hagström, Kati; Saarenpää‐Heikkilä, Outi; Himanen, Sari-Leena; Lapinlampi, Anna-Maria; Nieminen, Pirkko

doi:10.17140/pcsoj-1-107

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…These deficits often involve measures of intelligence, executive functioning, problem-solving, language, and memory. However, demonstrations of cognitive impairments have often been less robust than those reported when assessing behavioral outcomes, with some studies failing to detect significant differences between children with and without SDB [29]. For example, the only randomized clinical trial to date that examined the effects of adenotonsillectomy (T&A) treatment for SDB found significant improvements in behavioral functioning after seven months compared to children assigned to a watchful waiting treatment arm, but cognitive/executive-functioning changes were small and less consistent [30,31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frequency of snoring, rather than apnea–hypopnea index, predicts both cognitive and behavioral problems in young children

et al. 2017

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Objective Primary snoring (PS) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) not only affect the quality of sleep in a large number of young children, but have also been repeatedly associated with a variety of behavioral and cognitive problems. However, little is known about the potentially differing relationships of behavioral and cognitive pathology within the sleep disordered breathing (SDB) spectrum. Method This study examined data from an enriched for snoring community sample of 631 children aged between 4 and 10 years. Multivariate mixed models were used to assess the relationship between both snoring and the apnea–hypopnea index (AHI). Numerous cognitive and behavioral variables were used, while adjusting for several important demographic variables. These were followed by univariate analyses of individual measures and sensitivity analyses. Results Results indicated that snoring status is a significant predictor of general behavioral (p = 0.008) and cognitive (p = 0.013) domains, even after adjusting for baseline covariates and AHI severity. More frequent snoring was associated with poorer outcomes independent of AHI. However, AHI did not emerge as a significant predictor of the overall cognitive functioning domain (p = 0.377). Additionally, although AHI was a significant predictor of the general behavioral functioning domain (p = 0.008), the significance pattern and nature of its relationship with individual behavioral measures were inconsistent in post-hoc analyses. Conclusion The findings of this study suggest that general behavioral and cognitive function may decline with greater snoring severity. Further, snoring should not simply be assumed to represent a lower severity level of SDB, but should be examined as a potential predictor of relevant outcomes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%