Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study, 27 obese adolescents 10-18 years old with body mass index (BMI) ≥ 95th percentile, of whom 17 (43%) had mild intermittent asthma (MIA) according to GINA 2005 guidelines and 23 (57%) without asthma, plus a group of 20 eutrophics adolescents (BMI = percentile 50th-84th), 50% (n= 10) with MIA and 50% (n = 10) healthy. All patients underwent overnight polysomnography, Primary snoring (PS) was diagnosed with recording of snoring and apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) <1 and sleep apnea /hypopnea syndrome (SAHS) with an AHI ≥ 1 plus oxygen desaturations > 4% baseline, bradycardia or tachycardia. We obtained measures of central tendency, dispersion and t student test for different groups.
Results: In obese adolescents with and without asthma SAHS was found in 72.5% (n=29), PS was diagnosed in 20% (n=8) and the subgroup analysis of obese show that same number of asthmatic and non asthmatic had SAHS (70.5%, 74%, respectively). The subgroup analysis of asthmatics and healthy eutrophic had SAHS (60% (n=6), 0% (n=0) respectively. Globally AHI in the obese group was 2.05 ± 3.48 compared to healthy eutrophic (0.40 ± 0.26) with p= 0.0016, significant differences were obtained in the analysis of subgroups: the IAH in obese adolescents with asthma (3.41 ± 3.47) and obese without asthma (2.60 ± 2.55) with p= 0.7017. In the eutrophic group differences there were significant differences: eutrophic asthmatics (IAH: 2.15 ± 0.26) and 0.40 ± 0.26 healthy eutrophic p= 0.0047.
Conclusions: SDB is more common in obese adolescents. In eutrophic asthmatic adolescents SAHS was more frequent than in healthy, probably by the presence of co-morbidities such as rhinitis, hypertrophy of tonsils and all patients were classified as MIA. Adolescents who are obese have an increased risk of SDB compared with the group of healthy adolescents.