Children with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) have been found to have higher blood pressure than healthy children, a study has shown.
Chinese University studied the blood pressure and sleeping patterns of 360 children aged between six and 13 from February 2003 to December 2006 to investigate the effect of OSA, which is an obstruction of the airway that causes pausing in breathing.
The subjects were divided into three groups. The normal control group had no problem breathing while sleeping.
The mild OSA group had an apnoea/hyponoea index of less than five, which showed the number of times of breathing paused in an hour while sleeping.
The moderate-to-severe OSA group had an index higher than five. Forty-six subjects had moderate-to-severe OSA and 130 of the children had mild OSA.
'The symptoms of childhood OSA include loud, habitual snoring and sweating at night. There are also poor attention spans and morning headaches,' Ng Pak-cheung, a professor in the university's department of paediatrics, said.