A research team found that snoring children were at much higher risk of developing higher body fat mass and obesity late in childhood or adolescence, reports Medical Xpress.
Poor nutrition and lack of exercise lead to the increasing prevalence of obesity which, in turn, is the major predictor of diabetes and future risk of cardiovascular disease in western societies. Excess weight is also closely associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the increasingly common and potentially serious sleep disorder that is often marked by loud snoring. OSA affects about 5 to 10 percent of children 8 to 11 years old. While evidence suggests that OSA appears to exacerbate obesity and its comorbidities such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, its effects on children have not yet been studied in detail.
In a new longitudinal observational study, scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) looked at the relationships among maternal snoring, childhood snoring and children’s metabolic characteristics – including body mass index (BMI) and insulin resistance, which reflects future risk for developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease – in approximately 1,100 children followed from gestation through early adolescence.
