Pediatric obesity is associated with an increased risk of morbidity during childhood. Alongside the well-known metabolic syndrome, during the last decades scientific research has deeply investigated the risk of sleep breathing disorders. Among them, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) commonly affects children with obesity. The presence of OSA heightens the risk of metabolic impairment and weight gain. Therefore, it deserves specific treatment. However, polysomnography (PSG) is not always available in clinical settings, and alternative diagnostic tools are needed. This study aimed to investigate the predictivity of the pediatric sleep questionnaire (PSQ) for moderate-to-severe OSA diagnosis. Children and adolescents with obesity and suspected OSA with available full-night cardiorespiratory PSG were retrospectively enrolled. Receiver operating curve analysis was performed to test the ability of PSQ in predicting moderate-to-severe OSA (AHI > 5 episode/h). The final sample included 60 children and adolescents. The PSQ showed a good area under the curve (AUC) of 0.88 (95% CI 0.78−0.98, p < 0.0001). Moreover, a value above or equal to 0.65 showed an 80% sensitivity and 100% specificity for moderate and severe OSA. These findings suggest that PSQ might be used in clinical settings with limited access to PSG for stratifying disease severity and for selecting children with urgent need of sleep study.
Keywords: OSA; children and adolescents; obesity; pediatric sleep questionnaire; screening.