Prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing in a sample of children and adolescents from the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile

Abstract

Introduction: Sleep-disordered breathing are alterations in ventilation during sleep, frequently underdiagnosed in children. Objective: Determine the prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing in patients aged 4 to 18 years who attended the Clínica Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago, using the PSQ-CL questionnaire validated in Chile. Methodology: The PSQ-CL survey was administered to guardians of 189 patients between the ages of 4 and 18 in the waiting rooms of the Clinic between May and August 2023, after they signed informed consent. A descriptive and statistical analysis of the variables was performed. Result: 56,08% of the participants had a positive score for sleep-disordered breathing. A significant association was found between sleep-disordered breathing and regular school performance, although no significant differences were found in other variables. Discussion: The prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing in this study was higher than that reported in previous research in the Chilean child population (17,7%-25,3%), which could be explained by the use of a validated version of the PSQ-CL for Chile. The study also corroborated that children with positive scores on the PSQ-CL are more likely to have average school performance, as has been reported in the literature. Conclusion: The prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing in children can vary according to various factors such as age, socioeconomic level, ethnicity and chronic respiratory diseases, so it is necessary to carry out multicenter studies with validated tools, such as the PSQ-CL, to better evaluate the prevalence of these disorders in children.