Sleep-disordered breathing tied to worse emotional, behavioural function in kids

Symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) are linked with emotional and behavioural function in obese/overweight children, a new study has found. In contrast, device-measured sleep parameters show no interaction with such outcomes.

Researchers cross-sectionally assessed 109 overweight/obese children (mean age 10.0 years) in whom SDB was assessed using the Paediatric Sleep Questionnaire, as accomplished by parents or legal guardians. Device-assessed sleep behaviours such as wake time, sleep onset time, and total time in bed were measured using wrist-worn accelerometer.

The outcomes of interest were emotional and behavioural functioning, which was evaluated via the Behaviour Assessment System for Children Level-2, looking at clinical (eg, aggressiveness, attention problems, depression and anxiety) and adaptive (adaptability, social skills, and leadership) domains.

Overall score on the SDB scale was significantly correlated with all clinical domains of behavioural and emotional functioning, including aggressiveness (β, 0.197; p=0.04), hyperactivity (β, 0.197; p=0.041), behaviour (β, 0.231; p=0.016) and attention (β, 0.422; p<0.001), and atypicality (β, 0.279; p=0.003).

Similarly, SDB was significantly and positively associated with depression (β, 0.336; p<0.001), anxiety (β, 0.321; p<0.001), retreat (β, 0.250; p=0.009), and somatization (β, 0.303; p=0.001).

Meanwhile, SDB correlated inversely with the adaptability (β, –0.271; p=0.004) and leadership (β, –0.226; p=0.021) scales of the adaptive domain.

Of note, none of the device-measured parameters were correlated with any of clinical or adaptive measures of child behavioural and emotional function.