Effects of sex on sleep-disordered breathing in adolescents

This study was conducted to determine the influence of puberty on features of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in adolescents. The study was performed in a general population sample of 226 adolescents of both sexes (aged 11-19 yrs) recruited from the secondary school population of the city of Seville, Spain. Subjects were divided into two groups: 1) postpubertal, i.e. females who had undergone menarche and males in whom axillary hair development or peak height velocity had occurred > 1 yr before the study; and 2) peripubertal, i.e. females who had not undergone menarche and males who had not developed axillary hair nor reached peak height velocity, or subjects in whom these pubertal changes had appeared < 1 yr before the study. All subjects answered a questionnaire on SDB and underwent overnight cardiorespiratory polygraphy. There were 50 males and 40 females (mean +/- SD age 13.5 +/- 1.2 yrs) in the peripubertal group, and 54 males and 82 females (age 16.3 +/- 1.7 yrs) in the postpubertal group. Males exhibited significantly higher neck circumference/height index and waist/hip index than females in both the peripubertal and postpubertal groups. In the postpubertal group, snoring and polygraphic alterations (respiratory events and oximetric parameters) were significantly more frequent in males than in females. Postpubertal adolescents showed sex differences in clinical and polygraphic parameters that were not observed at earlier pubertal stages. These findings support the influence of sex hormones on sex differences in sleep-disordered breathing.