Habitual snoring linked to increased asthma symptom burden, Study says

Caregivers completed quarterly surveys for 12 months on symptoms of asthma, snoring, and health care outcomes. Snoring frequency (non-, rare-, sometimes-, habitual-snoring) and its relationship with asthma symptoms and asthma morbidity were assessed by mixed-effects models.

The following findings were observed-

a. There were 1186 observations from 339 subjects.

b. Mean age was 7.9 years; roughly half were male, and most were of minority race.

c. Half were overweight or obese, and 65.5% had atopy.

d. At initial snoring assessment, 24.8% reported habitual snoring, but report of snoring frequency varied over the study period.

e. Multivariate analyses revealed increased odds of maximum asthma symptom days for habitual snoring compared with nonsnoring (1.58; 95% CI, 1.19-2.10; P < .002) and all other snoring categories. f. Habitual snoring was associated with greater odds of health care utilization (incidence rate ratio, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.10-2.69; P = .02) and worse asthma control (odds ratio, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.05-2.11; P = .03) compared with nonsnoring.

Hence, the authors concluded that "snoring is common among inner-city school-age children with asthma, and habitual snoring is associated with increased asthma symptom burden and health care utilization."