Obstructive sleep apnea in obese community-dwelling children: the NANOS study.
INTRODUCTION
Obesity in children is assumed to serve as a major risk factor in pediatric obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). However, the prevalence of OSAS in otherwise healthy obese children from the community is unknown.


AIM
To determine the prevalence of OSAS in obese children identified and recruited from primary care centers.


METHODS
A cross-sectional, prospective, multicenter study. Spanish children ages 3-14 y with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to the 95th percentile for age and sex were randomly selected, and underwent medical history, snoring, and Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ) assessments, as well as physical examination, nasopharyngoscopy, and nocturnal polysomnography (NPSG) recordings.


RESULTS
Two hundred forty-eight children (54.4% males) with mean age of 10.8 ± 2.6 y were studied with a BMI of 28.0 ± 4.7 kg/m(2) corresponding to 96.8 ± 0.6 percentile when adjusted for age and sex. The mean respiratory disturbance index (RDI), obstructive RDI (ORDI), and obstructive apnea-hypopnea index (OAHI) were 5.58 ± 9.90, 5.06 ± 9.57, and 3.39 ± 8.78/h total sleep time (TST), respectively. Using ≥ 3/h TST as the cutoff for the presence of OSAS, the prevalence of OSAS ranged from 21.5% to 39.5% depending on whether OAHI, ORDI, or RDI were used.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in obese children from the general population is high. Obese children should be screened for the presence of OSAS. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01322763.
['Alonso-Álvarez|María Luz|ML|', 'Cordero-Guevara|José Aurelio|JA|', 'Terán-Santos|Joaquin|J|', 'Gonzalez-Martinez|Mónica|M|', 'Jurado-Luque|María José|MJ|', 'Corral-Peñafiel|Jaime|J|', 'Duran-Cantolla|Joaquin|J|', 'Kheirandish-Gozal|Leila|L|', 'Gozal|David|D|']
D000293:Adolescent D015992:Body Mass Index D002648:Child D002675:Child, Preschool D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008403:Mass Screening D009765:Obesity D010808:Physical Examination D017286:Polysomnography D015995:Prevalence D011320:Primary Health Care D011446:Prospective Studies D012307:Risk Factors D012890:Sleep D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive D012913:Snoring D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
sleep apnea obesity children prevalence adenotonsillar hypertrophy