[Undiagnosed sleep disorders in children from a hospital in Puebla, Mexico].

Abstract

Background: Sleep-related problems are rarely discussed during the healthy children consultation. Up to 50% of children experience a sleep problem and 4% have an adequate diagnosis. The American Academy of Pediatrics considers the prevalence of sleep disorders to be 20-30%. These disorders can be triggered by multiple etiologies: from organic to behavioral and environmental disorders.

Objective: To identify the frequency and clinical characteristics of sleep disorders in children in a second-level hospital in Mexico.

Material and methods: Observational, and prospective study. The extended Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ) was administered to ambulatory pediatric patients aged 2 to 17 years. Those with a psychiatric diagnosis or known sleep disorder were excluded. Those who did not complete 33% of affirmative answers of the PSQ were eliminated. They were interviewed to corroborate sleep disorders. Descriptive statistics were used in tables and graphs for frequencies.

Results: 334 patients were included, and 82 corroborated the diagnosis. The most frequent disorders were periodic leg movements (36 patients, 44%), somniloquy (24, 29%), nocturnal awakenings (20, 24%), bruxism (18, 22%), nightmares (16, 19%), sleepwalking (15, 18%) and enuresis (14, 17%).

Conclusions: In this study we found a high presence of unidentified sleep disorders in the pediatric outpatient clinic, even higher than the one reported in similar studies.