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A new study suggests that children with obstructive sleep apnea are at risk of fewer accidents with oncoming vehicles during the day if they use positive airway pressure or PAP therapy. night.
It is important to note that the children in the study report in Sleep Health that children need to stick to the PAP treatment plan to make a difference.
"Sleep disorders have real or even life-threatening consequences. Someone who is tired, whether he is a child or an adult, just does not work the same way when he is rested, "said David Schwebel, lead author of the study, University of Alabama in Birmingham.
Every year, more than 6,000 pedestrians in the United States are killed and 190,000 injured. A lot of them are kids. Preventing injuries to pediatric pedestrians should be a priority, write the authors of the study.
Obstructive sleep apnea usually occurs when an individual's airways collapse several times during sleep, interrupting breathing again and again during the night. According to the authors, between 1 and 5% of non-obese children and between 25 and 40% of obese children have this condition.
PAP therapy requires that patients wear a mask that covers the nose and mouth during sleep. The mask is connected to a machine that continually blows air to keep the airways open.
"When a person is struggling with a sleep disorder, it can be chronically tired, which can affect all kinds of consequences, including the risk of accidental injuries or accidents," Schwebel told Reuters Health by email.
Researchers studied 42 children between the ages of 8 and 16 at the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Center for Children in Alabama, diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), or OSA. sleep.
Before receiving PAP treatment, the children played a virtual reality program with a simulated street crossing. When the child's avatar crossed the street, he heard messages such as "Yes! Excellent work! "Or" Whoa! It was close! If a car hit a car in the simulation, they would hear, "Oh, oh, you should try again. "
During the simulation, the researchers measured the number of collisions, the number of times children looked to the left and right of the traffic before crossing, and the time needed to contact a car, a shorter duration indicating a risky choice to enter the vehicle. road.
The children replayed the simulation after three months of PAP treatment with devices that measured hours of use each night. Children were considered to be adherents if they used the device for four hours or more per night.
The research team found that almost half of the children had been treated with PAP over the past three months and their number of casualties per virtual vehicle had dropped significantly. The study authors calculated that when they were untreated, children were 12 times more likely than adherent children to have a simulated stroke.
"PAP therapy is sometimes difficult. This can be uncomfortable and difficult to follow, "said Schwebel. "But it will help sleepiness, and it will also help many other aspects of life, such as school, social life, and mood."
Many sleep specialists first recommend surgery to most children who have been diagnosed with sleep apnea. As a result, PAP is less often discussed. However, for older or overweight children, the surgery may not be as effective, said Dean Beebe of Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Ohio, who was not involved in the study.
"PAP treatment is most often used in adults, where surgery has not been successful at all," he said during a phone interview. "It's hard to get families and kids to accept the PAP, but that could be helpful."
Future studies should focus on sleep apnea and the safety of teens who drive, he added, as well as children who cycle to school. PAP therapy can help them focus better on the road.
"If your child snores loudly most nights, it's time to talk to your doctor," he said. "Snoring from time to time is not easy, but if it's most nights, it's not healthy or cute and is our most visible marker for breathing problems. during sleep."
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