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Published on: March 21, 2019
[Undiagnosed sleep disorders in children from a hospital in Puebla, Mexico]
Emely González-Mendoza1, Arturo García-Galicia2, María Guadalupe González-de la Rosa3
1Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Órgano de Operación Administrativa Desconcentrada Puebla, Hospital General de Zona No. 20 "La Margarita", Servicio de Pediatría. Puebla, Puebla, México.
Insights
Pediatric sleep disorders are common, affecting up to 50% of children, yet often go undiagnosed. This study highlights a high prevalence of unidentified sleep issues in pediatric clinics, underscoring the need for better screening and diagnosis of childhood sleep problems.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Sleep Medicine
- Clinical Pediatrics
- Epidemiology of Sleep Disorders
Background:
Sleep-related problems are rarely discussed during the healthy children consultation. Up to 50% of children experience a sleep problem and 4% have an adequate diagnosis. The American Academy of Pediatrics considers the prevalence of sleep disorders to be 20-30%. These disorders can be triggered by multiple etiologies: from organic to behavioral and environmental disorders.
Objective:
To identify the frequency and clinical characteristics of sleep disorders in children in a second-level hospital in Mexico.
Material And Methods:
Observational, and prospective study. The extended Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ) was administered to ambulatory pediatric patients aged 2 to 17 years. Those with a psychiatric diagnosis or known sleep disorder were excluded. Those who did not complete 33% of affirmative answers of the PSQ were eliminated. They were interviewed to corroborate sleep disorders. Descriptive statistics were used in tables and graphs for frequencies.
Results:
334 patients were included, and 82 corroborated the diagnosis. The most frequent disorders were periodic leg movements (36 patients, 44%), somniloquy (24, 29%), nocturnal awakenings (20, 24%), bruxism (18, 22%), nightmares (16, 19%), sleepwalking (15, 18%) and enuresis (14, 17%).
Conclusions:
In this study we found a high presence of unidentified sleep disorders in the pediatric outpatient clinic, even higher than the one reported in similar studies.
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