Washington, 5 March ( EFE).- A study to over 11,000 children over six years found that breathing while sleeping disorders can cause behavioural problems, according to an article published today by the journal Pediatrics.
According to researchers from the Albert Einstein College of medicine at Yeshiva University in New York, between behavior difficulties that appear linked to breathing disorders are hyperactivity and aggression, along with emotional symptoms and problems in relationships with other children.
“This study provides the evidence stronger, so far, that disorders such as snoring, breathing by the mouth and apnea may have consequences of behavior and emotional for children,” said the author of the document, Karen Bonuck.
Apnea occurs when abnormal pauses in breathing during sleep.
“The parents and pediatricians, alike, should pay more attention when they occur disorders in children breathing while they sleep, perhaps from the first year of life”, added Bonuck, Professor of family and social medicine, and obstetrics and gynaecology and women’s health.
These disorders reach a crest between two to six years of age, but also occur in younger children. Approximately one of every ten children ronca regularly, and 2 to 4 per cent shows apneas, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology. The most common causes of these disorders include enlarged tonsils or adenoids.
The study directed by Bonuck looked at the combined effects of snoring, apnea and breathing through the mouth of children registered in the Avon Longitudinal study of families and children, a project which has its headquarters in the United Kingdom.
Parents were asked to respond to questionnaires about symptoms of respiratory disorders children in several intervals, from the six to 69 months of age.
When these children were between four and seven years of age, parents and mothers responded to another questionnaire widely used to assess the behavior. This questionnaire has scales to examine the lack of attention and hyperactivity, emotional symptoms such as anxiety and depression, and problems for the relationship with their parents.
Is also used in the evaluation of the behavior problems such as aggression and transgression of the rules, and socially positive behavior, such as sharing games and possessions, willingness to help, etc.
The researchers weighted the data by 15 possible variables that may confound the results, including the status socio-economic, if the mother smoked during the first trimester of pregnancy, and low birth weight infants.
“We found that children with sleep breathing disorders were 40 to 100 percent more likely to develop neurological problems of behaviour towards the seven years of age, compared with children who had no breathing disorders,” said Bonuck.
“The largest increase occurred in hyperactivity, but we saw significant increases in all measurements of behaviour,” he added.
Children whose symptoms reached a Summit at an early age of 6 to 18 months, were respectively of 40 to 50 per cent more likely to experience problems of conduct to 7 years of age compared with children who breathed normally.
Children who showed the most serious conduct problems were those whose deranged sleep breathing symptoms persisted throughout the period of evaluation and became more pronounced at 30 months of age.
The researchers noted in his article sleep breathing disorders could cause behavioral problems because they decrease the levels of oxygen and increase in carbon dioxide in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.
Also these disorders disrupt the processes of restoration during the break, and disturb the balance of several cellular and chemical systems. EFE
