0943 DEMOGRAPHICAL AND CLINICAL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH PARASOMNIA IN CHILDREN: SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS FROM THE PHILADELPHIA NEURODEVELOPMENTAL COHORT

Abstract

Introduction: Parasomnias are common in children and decrease in frequency with age. Sleepwalking is one of parasomnias associated with NREM sleep in which a child sits up and crawls or walks around. In contrast, bedwetting, or enuresis, is an involuntary urination during sleep and can occur in all sleep stages. A few small studies have previously reported that certain genetic factors and medical conditions are associated with these parasomnias. However, risk factors and how they affect parasomnias have not been revealed. Methods: We conducted a secondary data analysis of 8719 children (age: 8-22 years) from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC). Data from the PNC include questionnaires asking if the subjects ever had problems of sleepwalking and/or bedwetting after the age of 5 years. We investigated demographic and clinical data including age, sex, ethnicity, or medical conditions. We compared them between 758 children with a history of sleepwalking and 7778 children without it, and between 1443 children with a history of bedwetting and 7085 children without it, respectively. We performed logistic multivariable regression analysis for sleepwalking and bedwetting by the factors those p-values of odds by univariable regression analysis were less than 0.2. Results: The odds of increased sleepwalking was significantly (P<0.05) associated with male sex, European American ethnicity, and having the following medical history: intrauterine or perinatal problems, migraine or headaches, serious head injury, “bedwetting after 5 years old”, frequent motion sickness, allergy to food, insects or hay fever, Ear/Nose/Throat problem, disorder of immune system and rheumatology joint disease. The odds of increased bedwetting were significantly associated with male sex, African American ethnicity, and having the following medical history: problems with development, migraine or headaches, diagnosis of epilepsy, motor tic, learning problem, autism, “sleepwalking”, hearing, endocrinology, hematology, hepatology, nephrology, oncology, pulmonary and urology/gynecological problems. Conclusion: Both sleepwalking and bedwetting increase the risk of each other. Characteristics of other risk factors are however, different between the 2 parasomnias with more allergic features in sleep walking and broad organic brain and physical problems in bedwetting, which may suggest distinct pathophysiological mechanisms that underlie these sleep conditions.