Cognitive dysfunction and sleep breathing disorders in 6- to 10-years old children

• Grant number: 10/06188-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: January 01, 2011
• End date: June 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Luciane Bizari Coin de Carvalho
• Grantee: Luciane Bizari Coin de Carvalho
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Mariana Bezerra da Rocha Figueiredo

Abstract

Sleep is a physiological process of fundamental importance for individuals, whose main function is to restore brain proteins, prevent the depletion of neurons, and consolidate memory. The child that has impaired sleep, both qualitatively and quantitatively, may present inattention, hyperactivity, impulsiveness, irritability, aggressiveness, impaired memory, and a bad temper or shyness. May also have complaints about tiredness, fatigue, and daytime sleepiness, and also difficulty learning. Children with sleep disordered breathing have a lower neurocognitive performance in relation to children with other disorders of sleep. The objective of this research is to compare the cognitive function of children with sleep-disordered breathing and children without sleep disorders between the ages of 6 and 10 years old and verify the relationship between cognitive dysfunction considering attention, memory, logical reasoning, listening and reading, and sleep-disordered breathing in children, relating to age and gender. That will be a cross-sectional study in elementary public schools, in the São Luis City, Maranhao. For prevalence of sleep disorders, will be applied a questionnaire about children sleep disorders in 3,200 children (5% of the total number of children enrolled in Sao Luis). The sample consists in 80 children to cognitive evaluation, 40 with sleep-breathing disorders (SBD) and 40 without any sleep disorder (control group CG). It wil be excluded from the sample children who were obese, with genetic or neurological diseases, or who are in medical, dental, speech, or psychological therapy, whose take any medication or had other sleep disorders and parasomnias. We will use the chi-square test to compare the cognitive development (adequate / inadequate) of children with sleep-disordered breathing and children without sleep disorders. We will use the logistic regression to assess the influence of gender and age in cognitive development. The results are presented in frequency and percentage of children appropriate and inappropriate, considering significant p values <.05. The cognitive assessment will be carried out by the researcher at the school in a room dedicated to it. The researcher will be blind, not knowing to which group the evaluated child belongs: SBD or CG. We will use WISC III, Bender, Drawing the Human Figure III, and psycho-pedagogic evaluation to assess cognition. The WISC III (Wescheler Intelligence Scale for Children), consists of 5 verbal scales: Information, Comprehension, Arithmetic, Similarities, and Vocabulary; 5 scales non-verbal: Picture Arrangement, Object Assembly, Block Design, Picture Completion, and Coding or Symbol Search. And 2 additional scales: Digit Span and Maze. The Gestalt Test Bender BG-9 consists of geometrical figures with increasing degree of difficulty that should be copied on a single sheet of paper and is designed to assess the level of maturity of the child. Drawing The Human Figure III is a non-verbal test, which evaluates the intellectual development, considering the capacity of perception, abstraction and generalization. Evaluation Psycho-pedagogic is used for research and diagnosis psychology, is to examine areas: cognitive, educational and social-affective. (AU)