The authors analyzed the charts of more than 230 children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 18 years with SDB symptoms who were referred for sleep testing. Hasbro says they relied on each participant’s history of behavioral, emotional and academic problems as well as Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores, a device used to measure child behavior problems based on parents’ observations.

According to the press release, the researchers were somewhat surprised to find that the strongest predictor of behavior problems was the presence of at least one additional sleep diagnosis, especially insomnia. They expected the severity of the SDB to play a stronger role.

“Our results may be interpreted as suggesting that, within the spectrum of patients in this study, severity may have a relatively weaker influence on behavioral outcomes,” said lead author Judith A. Owens., M.D., director of the pediatric sleep disorders clinic at Hasbro and an associate professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Study co-authors were Robyn Mehlenbeck, Ph.D., of the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center and Alpert Medical School; Juhee Lee, B.A., of Hasbro Children’s Hospital; and Melissa King, M.D., of Wickford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

“What we now need is a more sophisticated understanding of the nature and relative contribution of the various causes of sleep disruption that occur both as a result of, and in association with, SDB,” Owens says.

Hasbro Children’s Hospital is the pediatric division of Rhode Island Hospital, the largest teaching hospital of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.