Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Children and Adolescents with Down Syndrome: A Clinical Study

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea in children and adolescents with Down syndrome followed up in an outpatient clinic in a university hospital and to identify which factors are related to the disease and its severity. Methods: A total of 35 patients with Down syndrome were included in this cross-sectional study after being invited to undergo polysomnography and applying structured and standardized questionnaires, between March 2021 and June 2022, with data description by mean ± standard deviation for continuous variables and frequency and percentage in categorical, being considered significant p ≤ 0.05. Results: The selected sample consists of 57.1% girls, with mean age and body mass index z-score, respectively, 87.5 months (± 45.5) and 0.6 (± 1.3). Obstructive sleep apnea was diagnosed in 96.3% of cases, with a mean apnea and hypopnea rate of 11.3 events per hour (± 12.5) and moderate or severe disease in more than half of the population (59.2%). The severity of the condition was significantly associated with parental report of habitual snoring (p 0.002) and excessive daytime sleepiness according to the modified Epworth scale (p 0.001). Patients diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea were referred for otorhinolaryngological follow-up. Conclusion: The results show the high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea in this population, as well as the association between report of snoring and daytime sleepiness with the severity of the disease, which demonstrates the applicability of screening tools and reinforces the importance diagnosis to improve the follow-up of these patients.