Original ArticleObstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome Increases Pedestrian Injury Risk in Children
Section snippets
Methods
One hundred twenty-one children participated; 61 of the children were diagnosed with OSAS. Diagnosis and recruitment of that portion of the sample occurred at the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Center at Children's of Alabama. All participating children met International Classification of Sleep Disorders Second Edition diagnostic criteria for OSAS23 based on diagnostic assessments that included nocturnal polysomnography (NPSG) using Sandman 9.2 technology software (Embla, Broomfield, Colorado) and
Results
As expected based on recruitment of matched samples using a yoke-control procedure, there were no significant differences between groups in terms of age, race, sex, and household income (all Ps > .10; see Table I). Also as expected, children with OSAS were sleepier than healthy controls (Wilcoxon signed rank test, W(56) = 4.24, P < .0001). The age- and sex-adjusted body mass index (BMI) of OSAS group (mean = 32.94, SD = 7.58) was significantly higher than that of control group (mean = 24.35,
Discussion
Children with OSAS were more likely to get hit or nearly hit by a virtual vehicle than a control group of children matched using a yoke-control procedure by age, sex, race, and household income. This finding extends previous reports documenting the harmful effect of sleep deprivation on transportation safety of adults and adolescents.13, 14, 15 In particular, this study offers initial evidence that untreated OSAS may be associated with increased injury risk to children in pedestrian settings.
We
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Obstructive sleep apnea and road traffic accidents: a Danish nationwide cohort study
2022, Sleep MedicineCitation Excerpt :The effects of CPAP treatment were ambiguous in the present study, as the occurrence of motor vehicle accidents were noticeable lower in patients treated with CPAP compared to patients treated without CPAP, however, the risk of motor vehicle accidents was significantly higher in patients treated with CPAP when compared with matched references. Although it have been suggested that driving simulator performance remains impaired in patients with severe OSA after CPAP treatment, our findings are perhaps somewhat surprising, given that the majority of previous studies investigating the effects of CPAP treatment have reported a beneficial effect on the risk of motor vehicle accidents [14,17–26]. Indeed, the review by Tregear et al. reports that after just 2–7 days of treatment with CPAP, patients with OSA have a reduced risk of accidents with rates of motor vehicle crashes similar to that of individuals without OSA [12].
Virtually the same? Analysing pedestrian behaviour by means of virtual reality
2020, Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and BehaviourCitation Excerpt :Although certainly useful to ensure that instructions are understood and to familiarize participants with unknown technical equipment, the type and length of practice sessions should thus be tailored to their specific purpose. Practice trials can be almost identical to the experimental task in both type and number (Avis, Gamble, & Schwebel, 2015), or mainly serve to acquaint participants with the setup, for instance by allowing them to walk in a car-less virtual environment prior to a street crossing task (Feldstein et al., 2016). Within their experimental setting, Morrongiello et al. (2015) assume participants to be accustomed to the virtual environment after ten crossing trials.
Effect of positive airway pressure therapy in children with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome: does positive airway pressure use reduce pedestrian injury risk?
2019, Sleep HealthCitation Excerpt :A possible explanation for this finding is that when they are sleepy, children are still able to follow simple and rote rules learned when they were young, such as looking both ways before crossing, but they may not fully process cognitively the complex environment they perceive or select safe traffic gaps to cross within. This hypothesis corresponds with results from research investigating pedestrian safety in untreated pediatric sleep disorders of central hypersomnia and untreated OSAS, in which children looked both ways at traffic but did not process the crossing properly and were struck by virtual vehicles.29,39 Our findings have implications for clinical practice.
Perinatal risk factors for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in children
2018, Sleep MedicineCitation Excerpt :Individuals who had undergone sleep assessment or testing were identified in the hospital medical records system, as well as those who had not been diagnosed with OSAS or other sleep disorders, and had available perinatal data, were included to match to children with OSAS. This strategy, called yoke-matching, has been widely used in previous studies [16,23], and yielded a control sample with demographic characteristics that were quite similar to those in the case sample. The exclusion criteria used in the case group were also applied in the recruitment of the control group.
Supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (R01HD058573) and the Faculty Development Office at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development or the National Institutes of Health. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.