Childhood obstructive sleep apnea tied to higher risk of adverse systolic BP outcomes: Study

China: A new study carried out by Sizhi Ai and colleagues found that moderate-to-severe childhood obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is closely linked to worse systolic blood pressure (SBP) outcomes. The findings of this study were published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews.

All ages are affected by the widespread sleep problem known as obstructive sleep apnea. The incidence is 3%–5% in children and 9%–38% in adults, according to reports. Due to its link to cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurobehavioral problems, it is a significant illness. Studies have repeatedly shown that both children and adults with OSA have high blood pressure (BP), a known risk factor for severe cardiovascular and cerebrovascular outcomes.

Adults with obstructive sleep apnea have a known increased risk of elevated blood pressure (BP). It's still unknown, though, whether toddlers and teenagers would exhibit the same association. Therefore, to assess the relationships between childhood obstructive sleep apnea and blood pressure outcomes, researchers carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational data.

To locate pertinent cross-sectional and longitudinal research up to July 6, 2021, a thorough literature search was conducted for this study. The final analysis included a total of 12 cross-sectional studies and 2 cohort studies out of the 4902 identified publications.

The key findings of this study were :

1. In the cross-sectional studies, children with mild or moderate-to-severe OSA had substantially higher mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) than healthy controls, and these effects were particularly prominent at night.

2. According to prospective research, having moderate-to-severe OSA as a kid increases the likelihood of having high SBP as an adult (mean difference: 4.02 mm Hg).

The overall cardiovascular health of children, adolescents, and maybe future adults' may be improved by early intervention for diagnosis and therapy to resolve obstructive sleep apnea.

Reference: 

Ai, S., Li, Z., Wang, S., Chen, S., Chan, J. W., Au, C. T., Bao, Y., Li, A. M., Zhang, J., Chan, K. C.-C., & Wing, Y.-K. (2022). Blood pressure and childhood obstructive sleep apnea: A systematic review and meta-analysis. In Sleep Medicine Reviews (Vol. 65, p. 101663). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2022.101663