Abstract
Introduction
Medical consensus advises against co-sleeping for infants to protect against SIDS, but co-sleeping in older children is often dismissed if not associated with caregiver distress. While some families may choose to co-sleep due to cultural, circumstantial, or psychosocial factors, this choice can also be due to medical concerns warranting greater caregiver attention. We aimed to explore characteristics of co-sleeping children referred for sleep disordered breathing and hypothesized that children with polysomnogram confirmed obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) would have higher caregiver-reported sleep disordered breathing symptoms as compared to children without confirmed OSA.
Methods
Caregivers who accompanied their child for polysomnogram were asked to complete a questionnaire that included sleep-related symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing (snoring, apnea, gasping/choking), restlessness, and parasomnias. Inclusion criteria are age >1.0 years and <18 years, baseline study for sleep disordered breathing, and completed questionnaire. Retrospective chart review included demographic information, BMI, co-morbid conditions, and polysomnogram results. The cohort was divided into 2 groups based on polysomnogram confirmed diagnosis of “snoring” or “OSA”.
Results
Of 75 co-sleeping children, 27 (36%) had a diagnosis of snoring and 48 (64%) of OSA. The cohort was similar in age, gender, and insurance type for snoring and OSA groups (Average 5.7 +/- 2.6 yrs and 5.4 +/- 2.9 yrs, respectively; 41% and 35% female, respectively; 44% and 50% Medicaid, respectively). Notable differences in the snoring and OSA groups were found with BMI z-score (1.6 +/- 4.6 and 1.0 +/- 1.5, respectively) and absence of co-morbid conditions (44% and 63%, respectively). Regarding reported symptoms, the snoring-group compared to OSA-group had lower report of gasping/choking (19% vs 29%), bedwetting (7% vs 13%), and nightmares (7% vs 15%); and had higher report of movement (74% vs 60%), kicking (48% vs 31%), and startle/jump (30% vs 19%).
Conclusion
Although we predicted that co-sleeping would be associated with increased caregiver vigilance, witnessed sleep-disordered-breathing symptoms was only higher for report of gasping/choking and did not differ significantly for report of snoring and apnea in children with and without OSA. Interestingly, co-sleeping in children without OSA appeared to be more strongly related to report of sleep disruption in the form of restless sleep.
Support (if any):
Sleep-Disordered Breathing in the Context of Pulmonary Hypertension in Pediatric Patients with Co-Morbid Conditions: Case Series and Review of the Literature