Chest
Volume 124, Issue 2, August 2003, Pages 587-593
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Clinical Investigations
SLEEP AND BREATHING
Snoring in Preschool Children*: Prevalence and Association With Nocturnal Cough and Asthma

https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.124.2.587Get rights and content

Introduction

The association between snoring, nocturnal cough, and allergic symptoms in young children is not known.

Objective

To measure the prevalence of habitual snoring and its association with nocturnal cough, asthma, and hay fever in preschool children.

Setting

A cross-sectional study.

Subjects

Preschool children aged 2 to 5 years.

Method

The data were collected in a cross-sectional study. A total of 974 children were randomly selected from two areas of Lismore and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, Australia.

Results

The prevalence of snoring was 10.5%, with no gender difference (p = 0.99) or trend association with age (p = 0.58). The association between snoring and nocturnal cough was highly significant (odds ratio [OR], 3.68; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.41 to 5.63; p = 0.001). This association was significant in both the nonasthmatic and asthmatic groups when examined separately. Snoring was also significantly associated with asthma (OR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.34 to 3.10; p = 0.001). In subjects without hay fever, the association between snoring and asthma was also highly significant (41.2% vs 24.8%; OR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.34 to 3.37; p = 0.001).

Conclusion

The prevalence of snoring in preschool children was 10.5% for both genders. Snoring was significantly associated with both nocturnal cough and asthma. Because snoring, asthma, and nocturnal cough may have a common etiology, it is possible that effective treatment of one symptom may lead to reductions in the presence or severity of the other symptoms.

Section snippets

Materials and Methods

The methods of this study have been published in detail8 and are described briefly below.

Results

In the 516 boys and 458 girls studied, 54 boys (10.5%) and 48 girls (10.5%) had snoring for ≥ 4 nights per week, and 189 boys (36.6%) and 140 girls (30.6%) were reported to have nocturnal cough for ≥ 4 nights per week. In addition, 161 boys (31.2%) and 112 girls (24.5%) had a doctor diagnosis of asthma (Table 1).

There was no difference in the prevalence of snoring between the genders (p = 0.99) and no trend association with age (χ2, one degree of freedom [1df] = 0.31, p = 0.58). In the sample,

Discussion

This is the first community survey in preschool children in which associations between snoring, nocturnal cough, and asthma have been investigated. This study extends previous studies of snoring in childhood in suggesting that habitual snoring is common in preschool children. The prevalence of 10.5% for both genders was similar to the 10% found in French children aged 5 to 6 years,2 and 11.4% in English children aged 4 to 7 years.1 The somewhat lower prevalence estimated in the Italian study3

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We thank Elena Belousova for merging the data from the database, the Institute of Respiratory Medicine for data collection, the directors and care providers of the local preschool and child-care centers, and the parents and children for their participation and corporation. We also give special acknowledgment to the late Dr. Helen Bearpark, who conceived the idea of investigating sleep-disordered breathing in preschool children and developed the sleep questionnaire; this study is presented in

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