Snoring Linked to Behavioral Problems in Children

Habitual snoring in children is associated with structural brain changes that could be linked to behavioral issues, according to a recent study.

“Parents frequently report behavioral problems among children who snore. Our understanding of the relationship between symptoms of obstructive sleep disordered breathing (oSDB) and childhood behavioral problems associated with brain structural alterations is limited,” the researchers wrote.

To explore this further, the researchers conducted an analysis of data from 10,140 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. All participants were aged 9 to 10 years old and underwent structural brain magnetic resonance imaging.

Overall, habitual snoring (at least 3 nights per week) was reported in 661 (6.5%) of the participants and was associated with thinner cortical gray matter within several regions of the frontal lobe that are associated with reasoning and impulse control. It was also associated with increased prevalence of behavioral issues, including lack of focus, learning disabilities, and impulsive behaviors, as measured using scores on a child behavior checklist.

“Together, these results provide evidence for brain-structure-related determinants of the relationship between parent-reported symptom burden of oSDB and problem behaviors,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Isaiah A, Ernst T, Cloak CC, et al. Associations between frontal lobe structure, parent-reported obstructive sleep disordered breathing and childhood behavior in the ABCD dataset. Published online April 13, 2021. Nat Commun. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22534-0