Child's Snoring May Undermine
Intellectual Growth Study Finds

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young children with snoring problems may have academic difficulties into their teens, even after the snoring has stopped, study findings suggest.

The report in the June issue of Pediatrics found that middle-school students ranked in the bottom quarter of their class were nearly three times more likely to have suffered from loud and frequent snoring during early childhood than those in the top quarter of their class. Further, students ranked lower in their class were more than three times more likely to have undergone a surgical procedure known as a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy in an attempt to cure their snoring.

According to the study authors, snoring is a sign of disordered breathing, which can disrupt sleep cycles and cause difficulty paying attention, aggression and hyperactivity. These types of behavioral problems can interfere with a child's academic performance. Snoring can also undermine a child's intellectual potential, the report indicates.

``These findings suggest that children who experienced sleep-disordered breathing during a period traditionally associated with major brain growth and substantial acquisition of cognitive and intellectual capabilities may suffer from a partially irreversible compromise of their...potential for academic achievement,'' Dr. David Gozal and Dennis W. Pope Jr. of the University of Louisville in Kentucky, write.

In an interview with Reuters Health, Gozal said that children's snoring is never harmless.

``Snoring should always be considered a problem since snoring indicates the presence of increased upper airway resistance during sleep,'' he said. ``I believe that the presence of frequent and loud snoring in children who also demonstrate behavioral problems, learning problems or bedwetting, or failure to thrive, should prompt referral to a primary care physician and strong consideration of an evaluation by a pediatric sleep specialist.''

While it is not clear whether the damage is permanent, Gozal and Pope cite preliminary studies suggesting that recovery of brain capacity is only partial. At the very least, they write, the current study indicates that ``residual deficits in learning performance may still be detected several years after snoring has resolved.''

The researchers interviewed nearly 1,600 seventh- and eighth-grade public school students who were ranked in the top or bottom 25th percentile of their class. Loud, frequent snoring was reported by about 13% of those in the bottom quarter and 5% of those at the top.

Just over 50% of loud snorers lived in a house where an adult smoked. Conditions such as asthma, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and allergies were more likely to occur among teens who snored as children, the investigators found.

SOURCE: Pediatrics 2001;107:1394-1399.

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