[Epidemiological investigation of sleep disorders for children at ages of 2-12 years in Changsha City].

OBJECTIVE

To study the sleep time and the prevalence of sleep disorders in children at ages of 2-12 years in Changsha City.

METHODS

A total of 3756 children at ages of 2-12 years were randomly sampled from five districts of Changsha City from June 2006 to April 2007. A questionnaire survey was performed on their parents.

RESULTS

The average daily sleep time in the subjects was 10.60 hrs. The average daily sleep time among different age groups (1 year as a group separation) was different. It was 12.26, 11.57, 11.33, 11.26, 10.95, 10.64, 10.62, 10.45, 10.28, 9.83 and 9.61 hrs respectively in the 11 age groups of 2 to 12 years of age. The prevalence of sleep disorders in children at ages of 2-12 years was 40.9%, including frequent sleep snoring (8.2%), choke/gargling (1.5%), sleep apnea (0.8 %), sleep inquietude (7.6%), mouth breathing (4.9%), hyperhidrosis (22.6%), limbs spasm (3.2 %), sleep teeth grinding (9.5 %), sleep talking (5.5 %), sleep walking (0.9 %), nocturnal enuresis (2.5%), waking up by choke (1.9%), remaining wakefulness in the night due to too much daytime sleep time (1.5%), going to sleep too early (2.1%), night awakenings (1.6%), and screeching or crying during sleep (1.8%). The prevalence of different sleep disorders was different in children between boys and girls and among different age groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The average sleep time in children at ages of 2-5 years is less than the reference value recommended by the domestic child health care textbook. There is a higher prevalence rate of sleep disorders in children at ages of 2-12 years in Changsha City than the reported data in other cities.