Abstract
Pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with adverse health outcomes; however, little is known about the diversity of this population. This retrospective study aims to investigate age-related differences in the anthropometric and clinical features of this population. A total of 253 Taiwanese children (70 (27.7%) girls and 183 (72.3%) boys) with OSA were reviewed. Their median age, body mass index (BMI) z-score, and apnea-hypopnea index were 6.9 years, 0.87, and 9.5 events/h, respectively. The cohort was divided into three subgroups: ‘preschoolers’ (≥2 and <6 years), ‘school-age children’ (≥6 and <10 years), and ‘adolescents (≥10 and <18 years)’. The percentage of the male sex, BMI z-score, neck circumference, systolic blood pressure z-score, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio tended to increase with age. Adenoid grades tended to decrease with age. Overall, disease severity was independently correlated with neck circumference, tonsil size, and adenoid grade. Increased neck circumference and tonsillar hypertrophy were the most influential factors for younger children, whereas adenoidal hypertrophy became more important at an older age. In conclusion, gender prevalence ratio, anthropometric measures, and clinical features varied with age, and the pathogenic drivers were not necessarily the same as the aggravating ones.
Highlights
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a chronic disorder characterized by intermittent partial or complete airway obstructions during sleep with repetitive apneas and hypopneas
This study aimed to investigate the demographics, anthropometric measurements, inflammatory markers, and disease severity parameters among different age subgroups of children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)
Data were retrospectively retrieved from a medical chart review of pediatric OSA patients at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan between 01 March 2010–31 January 2019
Summary
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a chronic disorder characterized by intermittent partial or complete airway obstructions during sleep with repetitive apneas and hypopneas. The prevalence of pediatric OSA has been estimated to be 1.2–5.7% [3,4], and as high as 9.1% in some selected clinical populations [5] This condition is important because it is linked to adverse health outcomes, including failure to thrive, neurocognitive impairment, behavioral problems, metabolic dysregulation, and cardiovascular risks [3,6]. Evidence shows that adult OSA is a complex disorder with considerable diversity of patients in their pathophysiological risk factors and presenting symptoms [7,8]. These diversities are of great clinical importance, because patients with different phenotypes have different treatment responses and health outcomes [7,8,9,10]. While there is a growing volume of studies on the further phenotyping and clustering of adult OSA patients, a similar effort for children with OSA is still relatively rare
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