Abstract
Passive exposure to cigarette smoking has been associated with snoring and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in children and snoring-related sleep fragmentation.
The purpose of this study was to examine if parental smoking is a potential risk factor for OSAS in children.
Data was collected from 42 children who were evaluated with polysomnography. The presence and the severity of sleep-disordered breathing were quantified by the frequency of apnoeas and hypopnea per hour of sleep (AHI).
The study group consisted of 42 children (2.5-14.5 years, 64.3% boys). 33.3% children had mild, 38.1% moderate and 28.6% severe OSAS, based on AHI. 26/42 parents were active smokers (61.9%). 18/42 (42.9%) children had a history of wheezing or bronchial asthma. No statistical importance was recorded between parental smoking and symptoms related to upper airways obstruction, as mouth breathing during sleep (p=0.406) and during the day (p=0.546), observed apneas (p=0.77), snoring every night (p=0.19), nose speech (p=0.35) and nasal congestion (p=0.10). Although children with parents who smoke present easier fatigue at home (p=0.014), there wasn’t a correlation with learning difficulties (p=0.29), lack of concentration (p=0.24), sleep latency (p=0.68) or REM latency (p=0.57). Moreover, parental smoking didn’t influence the appearance of bronchial asthma and wheezing (p=0.53), the use of bronchodilators (p=0.75) or inhaled corticosteroids (p=0.527).Exposure to cigarette smoke at home and the presence of asthma didn’t increase the likelihood of habitual snoring or the severity of OSAS. Probably, this result is a dose-response effect between snoring children and the number of cigarettes consumed by their parents.
- © 2013 ERS