Prevalence and Associated Factors of
Snoring in School-Aged Children

Cho, Sung Jong; Kim, Eun Young; Rho, Young Il; Yang, Eun Suk; Park, Young Bong; Moon, Kyung-Rye; Lee, Chul-Gab

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Pediatric Society 2002;45(11):1340-1345.
Published online November 15, 2002.

Prevalence and Associated Factors of Snoring in School-Aged Children

Sung Jong Cho¹, Eun Young Kim¹, Young Il Rho¹, Eun Suk Yang¹, Young Bong Park¹, Kyung-Rye Moon¹, Chul-Gab Lee²

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Chosun University, Gwangju, Korea
²Department of Occupational Medicine, College of Medicine, Chosun University, Gwangju, Korea

학동기 아동에서 코골이의 유병률과 관련인자

조성종^¹^, 김은영^¹^, 노영일^¹^, 양은석^¹^, 박영봉^¹^, 문경래^¹^, 이철갑^²

^¹조선대학교 의과대학 소아과학교실
^²조선대학교 의과대학 산업의학과교실

Correspondence:
Kyung-Rye Moon, Email: krmoon@mail.chosun.ac.kr

Abstract

Purpose
: We studied the prevalence of snoring and its association with diseases, obesity and environmental factors, as well as sleep disturbance arising from snoring, in school-aged children.
Methods
: The survey was performed by a special questionnaire on 1,707 children at elementary schools from 1 to 30 July 2001 in Gwangju City. The prevalence of snoring, associated factors, and sleep disturbance were evaluated.
Results
: 266(16.5%) of the children snored at least once a week. 73(4.3%) of the children snored almost every day. Regarding the associated factors of snoring : There was a statistically significant difference between snoring and nonsnoring groups due to gender, obesity, sinusitis, tonsillar hypertrophy, bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis. Of them, male gender, tonsillar hypertrophy, and obesity were significant risk factors for development of snoring. Especially, the odds ratio increased to 1.048(CI, 1.004-1.659), 1.748(CI, 1.175-2.599), and 2.266(CI, 1.300-3.950) in children with an obesity index of 20-29%, 30-49%, ≥50%, respectively. There was a statistically significant association of snoring with decreased sleep duration, sleep talking, and drowsiness during the day as a result of sleep disturbance.
Conclusion
: 16.5% of school-aged children snored at least once a week. The association of snoring with tonsillar hypertrophy, obesity and gender as risk factors was demonstrated in this study.

Key Words: Snoring, Obesity, Tonsillar hypertrophy