SNORING, APNEA AND ENT SYMPTOMS IN THE PEDIATRIC COMMUNITY

This study was designed to determine the prevalence of snoring and ass ess the extent of associated ENT symptoms in children up to 10 years o f age. A questionnaire was presented to the parents of 245 children ch osen at random from the General Practice list of the town of Frome, So merset, UK. The prevalence of snoring was found to be 27%. This increa sed to 47% in the presence of an upper respiratory infection. Snoring was found to be significantly (P < 0.001) associated with a history of poor hearing, restless sleep, and having a cold. Less significant (P < 0.01) associations occurred with parental smoking, eczema, sleep tal king, moving around the bed at night, sore throats, having a runny nos e and mouth breathing. Snoring is a common symptom in children up to 1 0 years of age. Without evidence of other ENT disease the snoring chil d does not require referral to an ENT department for further investiga tion.