The Association Between Pediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Hypertension: A Database Study

Abstract

Objective: To examine the relationship between pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and hypertension. Study Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Nationwide Children's Hospital Sleep Databank. Methods: We included sleep studies of patients younger than 18 years. Studies performed with continuous positive airway pressure, postsurgical sleep studies, and those involving confounding diagnoses (eg, craniofacial abnormalities) were excluded. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between OSA severity and hypertension, controlling for body mass index (BMI) percentile and age. Results: A total of 2258 sleep studies were analyzed. There were 2140 patients without hypertension, 118 patients with any hypertension diagnosis, 66 patients with primary hypertension, and 43 patients with secondary hypertension. There was a significant difference (P