Abstract
BACKGROUND It was previously reported that nocturnal enuresis (NE) is associated with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) in children. The aim of this study was to elucidate whether NE and OSA were associated in community dwelling children in Japan.
METHODS All the primary school children from grade 1 to 6 (i.e. 5/6 to 11/12 year old) of a certain city in Japan were enrolled. Questionnaires were delivered to their parents or care-takers and collected via all the areal schools. NE was defined as those who bed wetted frequently more than once a week. We also investigated the frequency of snoring and SDQ scores, as surrogate markers for OSA and anxiety, respectively. Co-variables included grade, physical constitute, adeno-tonsil hypertrophy, and asthmatic history. Multivariable logistic analyses were conducted using SAS ver 23.0 (SAS Institute inc, Chicago, IL).
RESULTS 21,380 participants, 85.7% of total school children of the city, gave an analyzable response. We found that children who snored frequently were more likely to suffer NE. Other co-variables included lower grades, male, asthmatic history and anxiety were associated with the NE.
DISCUSSION The study indicated that OSA and NE were associated, leading to their possible common pathogeneses. There were a few limitations; this was based on cross-sectional study, and thus did not elucidate the causal relations. In addition, some of the diagnoses might be clinically inaccurate as the study was to the parents or care-takers. However, only a restricted number of studies based on communities was available regarding this topic, while our study enrolled more than 21,000 children, with such a high response rate.
- Copyright ©the authors 2016